I will never forget the Radio 4 programme on Picasso’s Guernica. Of course this is an emotionally devastating picture symbolically showing the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937, carried out on the behest of Franco by the Nazi German Luftwaffe. The radio programme covered the history of Picasso’s politics (he became a communist in 1944) and the painting techniques in its construction
Guernica pulls you in as you gaze on it. The lack of colour intensifies the drama – it's almost as if we're looking on a confused photograph of carnage. People are screaming in this painting, their necks stretched, their arms raised in defeat. People lie dead; babies lie dead in their mother's arms. And among this carnage, are a bull and a horse. In my last blogpost, I started a new series looking at symbols in writing, and here, both these creatures are present as dominant symbols of what Picasso is telling us.
As a symbol, bulls symbolise fertility and stamina, but although it's a powerful beast, it is often unable to defend itself. It's staked in a field by a ring through its nose, or allowed to enter a ring where it will be stabbed to death..Art critics have speculated that Picasso felt many personal parallels with the bull, incorporating it into his work as a symbolic form of self-portrait.The bull is almost totemic in Spanish society, protective of the people and especially the 'Madre'; the mother that is Madrid. However, it has also been interpreted as the fascist state that was attacking the ordinary people of Spain.
The horse has been said to represent the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. In the picture, the horse is screaming in pain and if you look closely you'll see it has been run through with a javelin. People wondered if Picasso was trying to predict the downfall of his nation. There is no doubt that this horse is as least a distressing sight, as the agony of mothers and children. It has become helpless as it dies its senseless death.
But the thing I took away from this programme on the painting was how ordinary people are affected by it. The contributors said that four and five year olds taken to see it are rendered speechless, that in 1939 working men brought their boots to the Whitchapel Gallery in London where it was displayed, to show their solidarity with Spain. It has gained a monumental status, an anti-war symbol, and embodiment of peace. In 1937, it was widely acclaimed and a tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention. Sixty year later, Colin Powell stood in front of the UN building to announce the start of hostilities in Iraq, and the tapestry of the picture they have there was covered with a cloth as he spoke. The inhabitants of Guerica wrote to the UN in protest, pointing out the tapestry had been hung to remind all delegates as they entered the building, that their priority was to prevent war.
This suggests great art is among the finest mediums of communication. In the right place (I think I mean 'available to be seen'), pieces of great art can be equal in effect, if not having a greater effect, to mass media, social media or advertising. Art does not leave you indifferent.
Since the M4 was built through the centre of Port Talbot, it has become the most polluted area in the UK, and one of the nation’s most deprived town. But just before Christmas 2018, Port Talbot woke up to a very special present. Two sides of a concrete block garage suddenly displayed a painting: a small boy with his tongue out to catch snow that, when viewed from another side, turns out to be ash from an industrial bin. After a brief period of suspense and speculation, Banksy confirmed the work as genuine by posting it on his website in the late afternoon, with the artist commenting: “season’s greetings”. In the frenzy that followed, thousands descended on the small street and the owner of the garage, who used to work at the steelworkss, went without sleep for two days as he tried to protect the image. He was quoted as saying; "It's really dusty in Port Talbot. I've lived there for 54 years." From this terraced street, the chimney stacks of the steelworks can just be seen above the rooftops, and streets nearby were home to actors Michael Sheen, Richard Burton and Sir Anthony Hopkins before they left for London and Hollywood.
Wire fencing was initially placed around the garage wall to stop vandalism, followed by perspex sheets. The artwork was finally sold for a six-figure sum and was displayed in the town.
Leonardo do Vinci is known for so many famous paintings, but this one is not a household name. It is the study of a foetus curled up in a womb, drawn in red chalk with traces of black chalk, pen and ink and wash, and has a note expressing his thoughts attached to it:
"In this child the heart does not beat and it does not breathe because it rests continually in water, and if it breathed it would drown. And breathing is not necessary because it is vivified and nourished by the life and food of the mother... And one and the same soul governs these two bodies, and desires, fears and pains are common to this creature as to all other animated parts. From this it arises that a thing desired by the mother is often found imprinted on those parts of the infant that have the same qualities in the mother at the time of her desire; and a sudden terror kills both mother and child. Therefore one concludes that the same soul governs and nourishes both bodies."
It is possible that this drawing by Di Vinci made more impact on the world than the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper put together. Da Vinci took his anatomical drawings from real life dissections, which the Church strictly forbade for non-physicians, but he determined to study human anatomy, including the relation between structure and function Often he worked by candlelight in the crypt of a church, painstakingly dissecting bodies, both of men and women of all ages. Da Vinci described how others “...might be deterred by the fear of living in the night hours in the company of these corpses, quartered and flayed and horrible to see.” His work showed remarkable powers of observation, perspective, accuracy and clarity, and through this he effectively was pioneering the future sciences of anatomy and forensic medicine.
By creating a perfect depiction of what happens to the baby inside a woman's body, he challenged moral and artistic convention and changed the way that scientists studied the human body.
Guernica can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Season's Greetings by Banksy can be seen at T'yr Orsef, Parkway, Station Rd, Port Talbot SA13 1UH
Da Vinci's famous embryological drawings of the fetus are held in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in England
