Picasso Superhero

Guernica

Pablo Picasso

1937

Oil on Canvas

Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

Arguably the most important painting of the 20th century, Guernica should be seen as Picasso’s comment on how art can liberate and protect against overwhelming forces such as political crime, war, and death. This is an example of the power of an artist.

Guernica depicts the suffering wrought by a German bombing in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
Three years later, when the artist was living in Nazi-occupied Paris, a Gestapo officer saw a photo of the painting in his apartment. “Did you do that?” he asked.
“No,” Picasso said. “You did.”