Guernica

Picasso's Guernica is regarded as the painting of the century, not least because of its combination of artistic quality and political significance. Yet the latter has always been doubted from the outset, as the painting presents far more difficulties for interpretation than its nimbus would like. The present study attempts to assert the political nature of the painting in its work structure, as an exemplary representation of a new form of total destruction in world history. The balancing act between aesthetic differentiation and immediate symbolic power contained in this structure is illuminated in two poles of its reception. It is no coincidence that Picasso's painting became both a compositional model for the abstract expressionists and an icon in a political installation by Luigi Nono.

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