Could there be a Hollywood inspiration behind Picasso's 'Guernica'?

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http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Could/there/be/Hollywood/inspiration/behind/Picasso/s/Guernica/elpepueng/20110912elpeng_3/Ten

Pablo Picasso was not at a high point in his life when he painted Guernica in May of 1937. The Civil War was devastating Spain and World War II was knocking at the doors of a ravaged Europe. Only the strong insistence of the government of Prime Minister Juan Negrín convinced him to accept the request for the Spanish Pavilion at the World Exposition in Paris. Negrín, the last president of the Republic, reportedly said: "If we have Picasso in heart and soul, the impact will be greater than a battle won against the fascists on the frontline." He wasn't wrong - the impact of the 349.3cm-by-776.6cm painting was enormous. Even today, as the 30th anniversary of its arrival in Spain on September 10, 1981 is celebrated, the work is embedded on the retina of our times.

"It is in the immobile figures where the coincidence can be seen. It is when the action stops that you can recognize the figures in the painting"

But Guernica and its symbolism, a subject on which the painter never wanted to elaborate, continue to arouse questions, reflection and research. The latter has been the work of Spanish photography director José Luis Alcaine, who will receive the Cinema Academy's Gold Medal on October 4 in the Reina Sofía museum, precisely where the painting has been on show since 1992.

Alcaine, a master of light who has worked on films such as Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In (2011) and Víctor Erice's The South (1982), believes Picasso's main inspiration was, in fact, the cinema, and in particular, a sequence of not more than five minutes from the film A Farewell to Arms by director Frank Borzage, an anti-war drama inspired by Ernest Hemingway's novel that premiered in Paris in 1933. Taken scene by scene, the movie has surprising similarities with the painting's main figures - and not Goya's The Shootings of May 3 nor Ruben's The Massacre of the Innocents , both formerly believed to have inspired the work. No, Alcaine has pinpointed a source of inspiration as colloquial as Hollywood itself, which, given the capacity of Guernica to exponentially expand all that surrounds it, is sure to cause a major debate in the art world.

[Enrique]

1. this is a great article

it makes me want to see that movie, even though Hemingway didn't like it. ;-)

The whole article is great, all the background information, everything. :thumbsup:

[CTyankee]

2. Fascinating. I had not known this story but I can see the cinematic quality

of Guernica. It looks like it could be a film montage of images flashing before us. The aerial attack on the town of Guernica certainly lends itself to that kind of representation and also given the fact that the painting is in black and white, such as films were in the early 30s.

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3. it's easy to lose sight of the fact that artists find the creations of others motivating

& they create new works to find ways of communicating w/ the work or works that inspired them.

picasso -- & others in his time really did talk to each other in art.

IMO

[CTyankee]

5. It is amazing how many famous works Picasso "re-worked", from

Las Meninas to Women of Algiers to Picnic on the Grass. Many artists of course did that too...

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8. the best art exhibit i have ever seen -- was the matisse/picasso exhibit.

it was a huge collection of art that they each did in response to the others work -- & it was very specific.

several of the pieces they gave to each other -- but they would write to each other and say -- 'i did X in response to your Y'.

it was amazing.

[CTyankee]

9. I missed that and regret it bitterly. My attention was elsewhere, damnit!

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10. one of my favorite parts were pencil sketches by both artists from their very early years.

the could draw like angels -- unbelievable -- & you could see they mastered something and then went on to expand it.

[LeftinOH]

4. Come to think of it, the original painting is the size of a movie screen-

it's HUGE!

[CTyankee]

6. Picasso got it out of Spain to London and then on to NYC before

Franco could lay his hands on it (he doubtless wanted to destroy it). It's scary thinking of how dicey it would be to roll up that large a canvas and have it stay intact for its journey.

Interesting story: when the Guggenheim in Bilbao opened about 12 years ago they had wanted to get it loaned from the Reina Sofia for the Grand Opening. Reina Sofia said "no" pretty decisively. They feared once it got to Bilbao, the Basque separatists would hold it hostage...

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Funny, I always thought the inspriation behind Guernica was

the bombing and massacre at Guernica.