Artist: Pablo Picasso

Described as modern art’s most powerful anti-war statement, Guernica is Picasso’s critique of the German bombing raid of a little Basque village in northern Spain. As Germany geared up for war, Adolph Hitler, with the approval of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, chose the village of Guernica as a site for bombing practice. On April 27th, 1937, the unsuspecting hamlet was pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours. Townspeople were cut down as they ran from the crumbling buildings. Guernica was allowed to burn for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians were killed or wounded. Guernica, is a sober indictment of these tragic events. Although Picasso had always intended for the mural to be owned by the Spanish people, he refused to allow it to travel to Spain until the country was permitted to enjoy “public liberties and democratic institutions.”