Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso completed in June 1937. The painting, which is 3.49 meters tall and 7.76 meters wide, portrays the suffering of people wrenched by violence and despair. Guernica is regarded by many art critics as one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.
The painting was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque town in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the request of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The bombing was designed to terrorize and demoralize the civilian population and Picasso’s painting became an iconic representation of the horrors of war.
