0 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,000 The Guernica is one of the most important pieces of art in history, or at least in the Spanish one. 1 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:17,000 It shows one of the most painful and wrong moments the Spanish civilization has suffered, which is the bombing of the city of Guernica. 2 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:24,000 Guernica is a small village located in the north of Spain, in the Basque Country. 3 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:31,000 The painting was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937. 4 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:40,000 During that time, the Spanish Civil War was taking place between the Republicans and the Fascists. 5 00:00:40,000 --> 00:01:02,000 On the 27th of April 1937, Hitler's German air forces, which were acting in support of the Fascist Party of Spain, decided to bomb the city of Guernica during three hours. 6 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:14,000 The aim of this air bombing was a training mission to test new bombing tactics and intimidate and terrorize the resistance. 7 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:38,000 Guernica was a city with no military strategy and no military resistance, so this bombing caused the destruction of over 70% of the city, as well as 1,600 civilians were killed or wounded. 8 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:54,000 During this time, when all this happened, Pablo Picasso was staying in Paris, so he found out about this event on May 1st through the newspaper. 9 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:05,000 When he found out, he did this visual response and memorial for the victims, and he painted it in less than a month. 10 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:19,000 After that, he sent it to the first Spanish pavilion, where it became the central attraction and shocked the world into the confronting and suffering of the Spanish people. 11 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Also, Guernica became a world traveler. It went on an international tour over 19 years to raise awareness and raise funds for the victims of the war. 12 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:53,000 After that tour, it stayed at the MoMA in New York, and Pablo Picasso refused to bring it back to Spain until Spain enjoyed public liberties and democratic institutions, which finally did in 1981. 13 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:06,000 So, the Guernica was brought back to Spain, and it stays where it is now, in the Reina SofĂ­a Museum. 14 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:26,000 The Guernica belongs to the cubist style, which shows a chaotic and confusing atmosphere. You can see that the space is compressed and ambiguous, and the images overlap and intersect. 15 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Bodies seem distorted and semi-abstract, and Picasso used a monochromatic palette of the color grey, because when he found out about this event, he did it by the newspaper, so he could only see images in black and white, which was the color of the images at the time. 16 00:03:51,000 --> 00:04:01,000 So that's why the painting is only painted with grey, black and white. 17 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:08,000 And it also shows the dramatic intensity of the war and the events. 18 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Of course, it shows the horror and the pain. You can see a lot of killed people, unbounded people, and people suffering, as well as animals, in the painting. 19 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:29,000 You can see that their faces are distorted in agony. You can see a woman carrying his killed baby in her arms, and she is screaming. 20 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:35,000 You can also see a horse in the middle of the painting, screaming as well. 21 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:40,000 And a woman coming out of a window of a house which is on fire. 22 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:47,000 You can see how chaotic that situation was, and how all the people suffered. 23 00:04:47,000 --> 00:05:08,000 And after that painting, the Civil War continued, and it also began the Second World War, so it also shows the horror and the pain of any type of war.