Picasso's Guernica

Picasso’s Guernica was sent to Madrid in 1981. Picasso had stipulated that it be returned to Spain after Franco’s death.I first saw it when I was about 12. My mom took me to MOMA a few times before I went to high school. The experience of seeing it was
disorienting. It was so big and visually out of control, the symbolism so incomprehensible, that it was a mysterious puzzle to me. I spent a lot of time looking at the studies for it . Matching the study to the larger painting , I liked examining the differences. When I would read the labels I couldn’t have cared less about the story line. I knew it was anti-war but Picasso’s motivation was by far less interesting than the raw visceral power of the painting itself. So impressive that the affection and memory of it still captures my imagination after not seeing it for 30 years. I realize now that the power of it comes from its formal qualities but also the immediacy of of Picasso painting in black and white made it feel like the painting was my own. As a young native New Yorker I felt the presence of the painting was such a part of MOMA and New York,I couldn’t understand why it should be sent back to Spain. In that myopic view of my youth I thought the day would never come when it would leave. Still in my mind’s eye it’s just been out on loan until its done traveling.
The power of the image is so strong that Rockefeller had a tapestry of it made and donated it to the UN. In 2003 when Colin Powell went to the UN to declare war against Iraq the Bush Administration had the tapestry covered with a blue drape so that the image wouldn’t appear behind him in photo’s of the event. That was some serious art power coming through Pablo.