Visual Chaos to Quite Wartime Media

It is day keleven of waking up and phone-perusing what is happening around the world from the comforts of my home.

On this particular morning, Picasso's Guernica came to mind—visual chaos to quiet the war-time media.

"Guernica" (1937) was Pablo Picasso's visually commissioned response to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town, Guernica, during the Spanish Civil War.

He discovered his native land being desolated while in Paris.

It took him just 3 weeks to paint this enormous modern art icon.

With his famous cubism style, Picasso muted the context of the Basque scenery, resulting in an emotive reflection on the chaotic destruction of all war and suffering.

While the painting is loaded with story and symbolism, one symbol has always stood out to me. Picasso’s possible view of God’s feelings about this war.

Guernica, Pablo Picasso

The eye-shape at the top has often been understood to represent God watching without interceding. This painting, alone, (this singular observation alone) has done more to convinced me to rethink my posture toward all sects of modern art than any other. It saddens me that Picasso would have found hope in whatever is behind the candlestick outside of the eye of God rather than in God, himself.

One of the most powerful stories regarding this painting:

"While Picasso was living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, one German officer allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of Guernica in his apartment, "Did you do that?" Picasso responded, 'No, you did.'"

My takeaways:

1. Art is a portal to listen to the cries and yearnings of the artist or the world the artist depicts.

2. People need to express themselves as part of the process to heal.

3. People need to express themselves as part of the process to understand and interpret what is happening.

4. Art that appears "anti-God" or "anti-Christian" must, above all, be understood before ignorantly attacked. The love of Jesus clothes the hurting. The Psalms feature a litany of God's followers asking where God is.

5. Ultimate comfort comes from God. Psalm 46:8-9 says, "Come, see the works of the LORD, who brings devestation on the earth. He makes wars cease throughout the earth. He shatters bows, and cuts spears to pieces; He burns chariots." Commenting on this verse, Spurgeon said, "Whenever we read history it should be with this verse sounding in our ears...The destroyers he destroys, the desolators he desolates."

6. Modern art is doing more than what seems like just giving God the painterly middle finger. I’ve come to learn that there exist still Godward yearnings even behind the most atheistic of artifacts.

To learn more, check out:

https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp

For an overview of the painting, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJLH7JAsBHA

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