On April 26th, 1937, German airplanes, commanded by the Spanish nationalists, bombed the town of Guernica. The story of the Germans breaking their pact of non-intervention in the Spanish civil war got out almost immediately. The Spanish Republicans commissioned Picasso to paint a mural of the bombing for the Paris World’s Fair to further publicize the attack. Ever since its first display, the painting has become a symbol for the brutality and suffering of war. The stark black and white shapes which cover the large canvass are caught in moments of anguish. Perhaps the most moving portion of the work is the figure in the far left; a woman screaming as she cradles a dead child. The resonances with the image of the Pieta are obvious, but all too human in this case.
Today a tapestry copy of the work hangs in the United Nations building as a reminder of the horrors of war. In the build up to the Iraq War in 2003, the copy of Guernica was covered with a blue curtain. Ostensibly, this was because the harsh lines of the painting would be distracting when people gave press conferences in front of it.