Guernica is one of the most famous paintings by Pablo Picasso.

Guernica is a masterpiece that is

recognized by a lot of art critics as being one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in
history. Its content is about the horror and consequences caused by the war.

In the painting, he showed the terror that had been caused by the Spanish Civil War, specifically the
bombing of the town of Gernika in the Basque country on April 26, 1837. This painting was one of the
most controversial in the world because of how it was viewed as a statement against fascism and armed
conflict during the Spanish Civil War. He interpreted this statement by showing multiple characters, such
as a woman holding a dead child, which represents life and pain above all the pain that motherhood
causes. Multiple women, one of whom is with an oil lamp, and one who looks like she is escaping. It is
said that this represents women who are suffering as collateral damage from all the terrors of the civil
war. People are not the only living things shown in the painting, as it also showcases chickens that
represent the suffering that animals experience when the bombardment happens on the market that
has caused animals to flee in fear. A horse, which some say symbolizes the Spanish people, but some say
it symbolizes fascism. And a bull, which Juan Larrea, a Spanish essayist and friend of Pablo Picasso,
suggests also symbolizes the Spanish people and Picasso himself.

Though the painting mostly focuses on realism, Pablo Picasso also included cubism and surrealism in it,
which is why a lot of art critics see it as one of Pablo Picasso’s best works. I, however, personally admire
it because of the meaning it conveys and represents, along with the respect I have because of the
courage Pablo Picasso had in making a masterpiece that could also be seen as a protest against the
terror that war causes.