Few events in the 20th century have affected the dimensions of political, social, cultural and artistic life of the European continent like the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). The government of the Spanish Republic was established in 1931 after 10 years of chaos and the King of Spain’s flight from the country. At first, this government made fundamental reforms in the social and economic fields; including taking power from the church and dividing the property of the rich among the peasants, which angered the clerical class and the landlords, but finally fell due to economic corruption, and in 1936, after the elections that resulted in the decisive victory of the Republican People’s Front against the clergy, royalists and army officers As a result, one of the army generals named Francisco Franco rebelled against the government of the Second Republic. This bloody uprising, which had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, the leaders of Germany and Italy, turned into a full-scale war with the support of the Soviet Union against the republicans, which lasted until 1939, and finally with the victory of General Franco, his dictatorial fascist government until his death in 1975 continued. Many intellectuals, journalists and writers participated in this war in support of the Popular Front, and this war became the basis of novels such as Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, George Orwell’s “Remembering Catalonia” and André Malraux’s “Hope”.
Great photographers like Robert Capa also captured this war, including the famous photo of the death of a soldier. One of the saddest events of this war happened on April 26, 1937, when German and Italian air squadrons bombed the village of Geronica in the Basque region of Spain for more than three hours. Grunica was the first city in the world to be destroyed by air bombing. Pablo Picasso created his monumental work Guernica with anti-war political content in the commemoration of the city of Guernica. This oil painting, which has dimensions of about 3.5 meters by 7.8 meters, is painted in cubism style. Picasso painted this painting to participate in the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. The sad faces of the black and white painting show Picasso’s anger at the war. This painting was taken to London after the Paris exhibition and was exhibited in many parts of the world during the following years. Finally, Picasso gave the painting to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Picasso wanted this painting not to be taken there until democracy is established in Spain. Now the Geronica painting is in the museum Reina Sofia is kept in Madrid.
The present photo is one of the photos taken by Dora Maar, a French photographer, painter and poet, during the month that Picasso was painting this painting.
Yasser Sepehr
Photographer and university lecturer
Iran Newspaper, 05.02.2018 vol 6711
Source: Irannewspaper.ir