Guernica

The Reina sofia is 3 floors and consists of an existing building and an addition by Jean nouvel. Starting at the first floor, we walk between and among large parallel sheets of Corten steel. Serra sculptures are minimalist and sleek. I imagine all the messy massive extra structural reinforcements made in the cellar to support the Serra sculpture. We then ascend to the top floor of the museum. Here, temporary artists of varying degrees of mental instability layout their scattered minds. I begin theorizing this existing space looks like a hospital. J.  believes it to be the palace of Reina sofia. Large corridors coupled to a tranquil courtyard and a maze of small rooms on the periphery. It is indeed the site of the first General Hospital of Madrid. King Ferdinand vi opened it in 1805 and it operated until 1969 before it was closed down. A large terrace with mirrored polished metal ceilings and apertures connects to the existing building and acts like a plaza suspended in the air. Ducking back into the building we begin our search for the prized painting of the complex. Through countless rooms of cubist braques, Gris, and surrealists Dali, we finally stumble upon guernica. Unintentionally, we manage to peruse all the rooms of Reina sofia before guernica... it is the ultimate finale. The black and white painting measuring 12 feet high and 25 feet across occupies its own room.

Through its composition of suffering people and animals twisted by violence and chaos one can see the horror of war Picasso sought to convey. Prominent in the composition are a gored horse symbolizing the savagery of war, an emasculated impotent bull representing how lost Spain had become, screaming women, dismemberment, a dim light bulb, and flames. Picasso painted Guernica at his home in Paris upon hearing first hand accounts of the bombing of guernica by hitler authorized by Franco. Franco sought a return to pre-Republican Spain based on law, order, and traditional Catholic values and engaged in a civil war that decimated 600,000 of his fellow countrymen.

According to nazi bomber diaries, “bombs destroyed a number of houses and destroyed the water mains. The incendiaries now could spread and become effective. The materials of the houses: tile roofs, wooden porches, and half-timbering resulted in complete annihilation.”

According to journalist George steer, “Guernica’s inhabitants were congregated in the center of town, as it was market day, and when the bombardment started they were unable to escape because the roads were full of debris and the bridges leading out of town had been destroyed. Because a majority of Guernica's men were away, fighting on behalf of the Republicans, at the time of the bombing the town was populated mostly by women and children. A powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three types of German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000 lbs. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machinegun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.”

Picasso lived in Paris during the German occupation during World War II. A German officer allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of Guernica in Picasso's apartment, "Did you do that?" Picasso responded, "No, you did."

Outside the room of the painting was a anteroom full of Picasso’s sketches executed for the painting. Picasso was relentless in process in his attempt to catch the agony of the situation. Guernica was executed after careful analyses. Behind each sketch I assume there is a story. I take a picture of a study of a weeping woman. I imagine it to be Dora marr... the photographer lover that Picasso took on for 9 years starting in 1935. It is. She is the woman that would pose for his famous weeping woman paintings. She is the muse who trained under photographer Man Ray that suggested Picasso paint guernica in black and white, and that photographed his work process.