Pablo Picasso painted Guernica to protest the bombing of the Basque village of Guernica in northern Spain. This bombing was done by Hitler at the request of the fascist leader, Francisco Franco, who thought it would give him an advantage in the Spanish Civil War. It is thought to be the most significant anti-war and anti- violence painting of all time. Its hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

This work is a huge mural. It is 11 feet tall and 25.5 feet wide. It is a painted in gray scale ranging from light to dark without other colors. It is a riotous work of harm and pain done in the abstracted style of Picasso.

Pablo Picasso seemed to realize the relationship between art and activism. He painted here the disbelief and wail of people without power and awash in loss and injustice. In this work he made a universal statement on man’s inhumanity to man and created an emblem of its result. This image could be seen as a troubling denial of “I am the master of my fate” from Invectus by William Ernest Henley.

This is what brutality has always looked like delivered by bombs or chokeholds or real bullets or rubber bullets or tear gas. This is a scene of timeless outrage that screams for us to hear. In our troubled times, we lift our broken hearts, our tenuous hopes, our dreams and visions to you, God, as we chant “no justice, no peace” once more.

In faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty