Historical Context and Unique Characteristics of Pablo Picasso's Artwork Guernica

 Cubism is an important art movement in the 1900s, lead by Pablo Picasso, Cubism artists used basic shapes to represent characters in a irrational way. Pablo Picasso was one of the most famous Cubism artists, his significant pieces including Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, The Old Guitarist, and Girl with a Mandolin.

In this painting named Guernica, Picasso used only white, black, and gray in color and cubism style of painting to show his point of view on war. Different from the art works in previous time, Picasso criticized the war instead of praise it. The purpose of drawing Guernica was to warn the world how war effect on people’s life and how people suffer from it. The whole painting was in chaos, but it actually in a order.

Characters in this painting were suffering and dying. Faces of these characters all seemed screwy and anguished. Most famous part in this painting was on the left side, there is a wounded women with her head backward and she was holding her dead baby. The history context of Guernica is connected to the Spanish civil war. In 1937, when Picasso heard the news of the Spanish revolution, he was horrified by the cost of death. Guernica was done by one week, to show Picasso’s response to the brutal warfare. Intended audience in this painting is probably Spanish people, especially people in the Spanish Pavilion. Guernica reflects the Age of Anxiety, as it shows how people started to view war in a negative way and how artists began to focus on the irrational emotion of human.

Futurism is another important art movement in the 1900s, founded by Filippo Tommaso Marineti, it focus on showing the speed and industry of that period. This painting named street light was painted by an Italian artist, Giacomo Balla. Balla was will influenced by Marineti, in which Balla reject the part the glorify the future. The purpose of street light is to show the excitement on the new electric technology which symbolized the steps toward future and modern. In this painting, the middle was a bright street light that lighted up the dark, it’s sparking colorful lights that are represent in the short lines coming out from the light.

On the right of the painting, there is a moon which has much less power compared to the street light. It represent the past, and reflect Futurism slogan: “Let’s kill the moonlight!” The historical context of this painting was that in Paris, the new technology of electric lights was just installed at this time. For Balla, this is the sign of raising future. The Street lights shows the Age of Anxiety in another way differed than the Guernica. Futurism artists viewed this period as a change to modern, the time to abandon the past and prepared for future, the excitement of speed and technology can be shown in this painting.