Who and what communicates the horrors of war most profoundly?
Journalists on the front lines try to document it in real time. Authors, filmmakers and musicians interpret the damage in works that endure long after the fighting stops. And painters, too, have made their mark, perhaps most notably Pablo Picasso.
This week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President, made a one-day visit to Spain. He made time to view Picasso’s “Guernica” at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. It’s a reminder that when words fail, art still conveys the truth about war.
So, a little history.
Mondays were typically market days in the quiet town of Guernica, located in the Basque region of northern Spain. On the afternoon of Monday, April 26, 1937, the townspeople looked up to see fighter planes appear in the sky.
This was in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. With many of the men off fighting, Guernica was populated mainly by women and children.
Territories controlled by the democratic republic were battling the rebel Nationalist faction, led by Francisco Franco. The planes overhead were from the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany and the Aviazione Legionaria of fascist Italy, both allies of the Nationalists. Over three hours, the planes dropped 100,000 pounds of munitions.
The aerial bombardment killed or wounded an estimated one-third of the population of 7,000. The fatalities included up to 1,600 civilians. One of the first journalists on the scene described the smell of burning human flesh and homes collapsing into an inferno.
A historian later wrote that the destruction of Guernica was a belated birthday present from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring to Adolf Hitler, as a trial run for their war machine. In a chilling diary entry, the German commander of the attack wrote this: “Guernica has been razed to the ground. Bomb craters can be seen in the streets. Simply wonderful.”
Nine hundred kilometres away, Picasso, a Spanish artist, was living in Paris. He was working on a commission for the Spanish pavilion at the upcoming Paris International Exposition. Learning of the terror bombing, he set aside his original concepts. Picasso started to sketch what would become one of his most famous works.
“Guernica” depicts the ravages and chaos of war in monochromatic grey, black and white: a screaming woman, a dead baby, a dismembered soldier, a gored horse, a bull and flames overlap across a massive 11-by-25-foot canvas. One critic called it a cubist apocalypse.
The painting was unveiled at the Paris fair in July 1937. It was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Manhattan in 1939. That same year, Franco became dictator of Spain, and would rule until his death in 1975.
By then, another conflict had captivated protesters, as did Picasso’s enormous mural. During the Vietnam War, anti-war protesters sometimes held vigils in the room housing “Guernica” at the MoMA. On February 28, 1974, an artist named Tony Shafrazi pulled out a can of red spray paint, writing LIES ALL KILL across the canvas.
Picasso had died the year before. He had long refused to allow “Guernica” to be shown in Spain. He said it couldn’t until democracy returned to the country of his birth, and included that stipulation in his will.
After Franco died, Spain did transition into a democracy, and enacted a new constitution in 1978. Finally, in 1981, MoMA sent “Guernica” to Spain, where it now resides at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
In June 2022, during a NATO summit in Madrid, anti-war activists played dead in front of “Guernica”. Some held these signs: “War is the death of people. War is the death of art.”
Even though “Guernica” has been housed in Madrid for 44 years, it still has a major presence in Manhattan. In 1985, a full-size tapestry of the painting was hung at 405 East 42nd Street, better known as the United Nations. It adorns the entrance to the Security Council room. And not always without controversy.
On February 5, 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was there making a case for war on Iraq. During his news conference, a large blue curtain covered “Guernica” so it wouldn’t be visible behind him. U.N. officials said that TV news crews made that request, wanting a cleaner backdrop. However, some diplomats privately told reporters that the Bush administration asked for the cover-up.
Just another chapter in the never-ending “Guernica” story.
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
November 19, 2025