Guernica And Abu Ghraib Paintings
In this paper, there is a discussion about the paintings done by Pablo Picasso, “Guernica”, and those done by Fernando Botero, “Abu Ghraib”. Here the two sets of paintings are considered separately and later comparing and contrasting these paintings is carried out. The two paintings are associated with war. “Guernica” was done in the1930s after the Bombing in Guernica during the civil war. On the other hand “Abu Ghraib” was done in recent times showing the prisoners of Iraq war in Abu Ghraib.
Guernica
This is one among the most well-known of Pablo Picasso’s paintings. This paintings exhibit the consequences of the Guernica bombing. This painting shows people who are suffering, buildings destroyed by the fighting and tumult of the carpet-bombing, animals, and the sketch of a skull shaped by a range of objects. This big canvas represents heartlessness, rough treatment and desperation of the war and the brutality of bombing civilians. The preference to paint using only black and white with no color contrasts the shattering power of the sight exhibited.
Even at the time before bombing occurred and the subsequent representation in to painting by Pablo Picasso, the Guernica city had for a long time been related to the established Basque people freedoms. Imagery is used in this paintings and this imagery had been seen in Pablo Picasso’s paintings from the start of the 1930s. The Guernica city which had been associated with the nationalism of Basque was bombed in the year 1937 in the month of April and there was opening of Spanish Pavilion during the same year in the month of July.
Pablo Picasso exiled himself in Paris at the time he released the painting. At that time, Picasso had never been to Guernica city or had no intention of ever going there. Picasso’s lover by the name Dora Maar made a wide photographic record of the implementation of this painting. After the completion, the painting was moved to several places. First it was moved to Scandinavian capitals, it was then taken to London where it reached in the year 1938 in the month of September and at that moment there was signing of the Munich Agreement by the leaders from Italy, France, Germany and those in the United Kingdom. The painting was then returned to France for a short while. The painting was then sent to the United States of America after winning the Francisco Franco’s victory in Spain. In the Unite States, it was used to raise funds in order to bring about ht e support of the Spanish refugees. The Piece was the entrusted to the MONA – Museum of Modern Art after Pablo Picasso requesting this. This was in the New York City.
During the period between the year 1939 and the year1956, there was wide traveling of the painting in the United States of America. It was later taken to other countries like Brazil, several major cities in Europe, then it went to Chicago and then to Philadelphia. By this time, concern for the painting’s condition resulted in to a resolution to maintain the painting in a room on MONA’s third floor where it had to remain. Currently, the nationalists of Basque are suggesting that the painting be taken to the Basque country with a claim that the large canvas is currently considered to be so delicate to be moved around (Anonymous, 2005, Guernica Painting).
Abu Ghraib
This is a series of paintings produced by a Colombian artist by the name Fernando Botero. The paintings are about the torture of the prisoners of Iraq at a place known as Abu Ghraib. They are paintings showing prisoners who are naked, some hanging from ropes, they are being beaten up by the soldiers and dogs are as well attacking them. Fernando Botero does this work as a result of development of hatred in him and in people all over the world about the infliction of pains in the prisoners in Iraq (Anonymous, 2005, Fernando Botero Paints Abu Ghraib).
. These paintings bear a haunting and frantic feeling. Fernando Botero captures the appearance of extreme anxiety on the faces of men when there is no hope of fair dealing. He presents to his audience the gory stanchions that hold up the order of the new world and the growing number of innocent sufferers necessary to maintain them honest. The kind of message Fernando Botero is trying to put across in this paintings is not the kind of message one can get from the media where the country’s war crimes are hidden in a deep polish of elaborate oratory and hopeful predictions. These paintings give a real message. They exhibit to the audience the aggression that springs out from the Bush administration and portends a progressively more uncertain future for all the people (Whitney, 2005).
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