online exhibit shows hidden depths of
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Picasso's 'Guernica'

Online exhibit shows hidden depths of

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Online exhibit shows hidden depths of

Guernica is a source of never-ending artistic material
Madrid - Arab Today

Spray-painted in murals, wielded on anti-war banners, and even once hung as a tapestry at the United Nations, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica might be the world’s most famous political artwork.

Now organizers of a new initiative are inviting art lovers to revisit the iconic black-and-white painting, using the latest imaging technology and releasing a trove of previously unseen documents to chart its turbulent history.

“Guernica is a source of never-ending artistic material and it’s a privilege to be with as an art historian,” says Rosario Peiro, head of collections at Madrid’s Reina Sofia modern art museum.

She is part of the team behind Rethinking Guernica, an interactive exhibition launched this week about the work.

“Putting all of this together allows you to rethink the history of the painting,” Peiro told AFP. Guernica, conceived in the depths of Spain’s devastating civil war, shows the bombing of a Basque town on April 26, 1937 by German and Italian air forces under the orders of future Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Hundreds died in an aerial attack on civilians that shocked the world and set a precedent repeated often by German and allied forces in World War II.

Picasso, then living in France, was commissioned by the struggling Spanish Republican government to produce a work depicting the bombing for the 1937 World Fair in Paris.

STORIED HISTORY
That commission and hundreds of other documents concerning Guernica are now available online for the first time.

They tell the story of a hugely well-traveled work, with stops in Scandinavia, Britain, and the United States, where it spent decades on loan at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

There are papers relating to its trip to Venezuela in 1948 that was cut short due to a coup d’etat, and a frantic telegram sent by MoMA collections director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. informing the artist that his works were safe after a fire tore through the museum in 1958.

“Clearly it is a political painting because it was requested by the government for a propaganda purpose,” says Peiro.

“The truth is during all these years of travel and being in different places, the work was depoliticized.”

Researchers took thousands of images using visible and ultraviolent light as well as infrared reflectography and high-definition X-rays to create a “Gigapixel” rendering that allows users to browse a 436-gigabyte composite of the work.

Details of its restoration, individual paint strokes and even rogue hairs from Picasso’s brushes can be seen still stuck to the original canvas. Residue from a 1974 act of vandalism is visible in the form of barely perceptible reddish discoloration across central areas.

“For me what is interesting to see is the geography of the painting, its surface, as if it’s a kind of history map,” says Peiro.

NEW PERSPECTIVES
The Reina Sofia currently displays dozens of black-and-white war images alongside Guernica, many captured by legendary Catalan conflict photographer Agusti Centelles.

Some critics credit the photos for Picasso’s decision to eschew his usual vivid colors in the piece.

As Catalonia’s independence crisis exposes Spain to its deepest political turbulence since returning to democracy in 1978, Peiro however insists the current installation isn’t about politics.

“We do show a lot of Barcelona photographs but that’s because the best Spanish photojournalist of the time was Catalan,” she said.

Peiro hopes the new project will provide new perspectives on one of the 20th century’s defining images.

“Guernica is the most important work, physically and symbolically, for the museum so we have to keep on working on it,” she says.

Source:AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

online exhibit shows hidden depths of online exhibit shows hidden depths of

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

online exhibit shows hidden depths of online exhibit shows hidden depths of

 



GMT 10:10 2017 Thursday ,09 February

3 Important Elements You Have to Consider

GMT 04:03 2017 Monday ,24 April

Bella Hadid ‘dying’ to visit Palestine

GMT 19:25 2016 Wednesday ,25 May

The Brooklyn Desk by Oeuf NYC

GMT 07:49 2018 Friday ,05 January

2 Russian servicemen killed

GMT 07:58 2018 Monday ,01 January

Italy orders N. Korea's envoy to leave

GMT 08:45 2017 Wednesday ,20 December

US military imagines war without GPS

GMT 17:26 2017 Sunday ,17 December

Putin thanks Trump for help in foiling attack plot

GMT 22:19 2017 Monday ,16 October

Cairo-hosted Fatwa conf. new contribution

GMT 02:27 2016 Friday ,10 June

Video hints Japan abetting illegal ivory trade

GMT 07:04 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

1,883 Bahrainis found jobs in March

GMT 14:24 2016 Tuesday ,22 November

Citi and JPMorgan top list of ‘globally banks’

GMT 21:43 2017 Friday ,01 September

People question Nazaruddin`s repatriation expenses

GMT 09:41 2017 Wednesday ,19 April

OIC concerned over violence in Mali

GMT 01:30 2017 Friday ,27 October

May22/Jun21

GMT 05:38 2016 Friday ,30 December

Dubai Airports divert 13 flights due to heavy fog

GMT 11:38 2017 Saturday ,14 January

Mexico names new ambassador to US

GMT 12:03 2017 Wednesday ,22 March

Kuwait to mark World Water Day

GMT 15:00 2017 Wednesday ,27 September

HM King receives invitation from Egyptian President

GMT 02:45 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

President Bashir arrives in Chad

GMT 02:45 2017 Wednesday ,16 August

Turkmen President Visits Pakistan
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday