Pablo Picasso was an artist in the cubism/surrealism period. He was born on October 25th, 1881 and died on April 8th, 1973.  Picasso went through several phases. He had the African period, Rose period, Blue period, Cubist period and modern art. The Guernica was during Picasso's cubist period. The painting is very symbolic and and portrays much emotion.

                This painting was created through synthetic cubism, which is a form of cubism. The use of synthetic cubism here allows much more leverage for Picasso to work with. For example, its easier to manipulate and control emotion with unrealistic characters because their actions and expressions portray feelings so powerful that it's impossible not to relate to and emphasize with this image.


               Picasso produced this piece to bring the world's attention to the bombing in the Basque town of Spain. He portrayed emotion in several aspects.  First, a woman is grieving over her dead child with a bull standing over her head. Next, a man (presumably her husband) is dismantled and covered in scratch marks, leading the audience to believe he was trampled. The horse in the center of the painting is falling in agony, catching the audiences' eye. Above the horse is a lightbulb, which is English for "bombilla", which is similar to the word "bomba" in Spanish, meaning bomb. Daggers that suggest screaming replace the tongues of the bull, horse, and the grieving woman. Next to the lightbulb, a ghost-like woman holds a candle. This is meant to signify hope, and how close it was to being shattered by the bomb. All of these features create a powerful mural meant to awaken people to the tragedy.