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Setting the scene
On April 26, 1937, German and Italian aircraft supporting Francisco Franco bombed the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, killing hundreds of civilians; Pablo Picasso, commissioned for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition, channeled outrage into a monumental canvas in his Paris studio on Rue des Grands Augustins.
What happened
Guernica was completed and displayed in 1937 at the Paris World's Fair, a black-and-white mural of shrieking figures, a gored horse, and a light bulb sun that refused easy propaganda readings.
Why it still matters
The painting became an anti-war icon, touring internationally before resting at Madrid's Reina Sofía; its fragmented Cubist horror still anchors debates over art, atrocity, and whether abstraction can testify to historical violence.
Background
The painting became an anti-war icon.