In Robert Hughes text ‘The Shock of the New’, he confronts Picasso’s painting Guernica and discusses the importance of the artwork, as well as how art/artists have changed since the production of the painting. Robert Hughes was an Australian born art critic and writer. ‘The Shock of the New’ is part of a larger text of Hughes’ called ‘The faces of Power’, and the Shock of the New was made into a television series that Hughes produced. In his text, Hughes claimed that Guernica was the last great history painting and essentially the last modern painting of major importance - stating that “It was also the last modern painting of major importance that took its subject from politics with the intention of changing the way large numbers of people
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The text itself accompanied a TV series of the same name, which Schama presented and wrote. In the text, Schama talks extensively about the process Picasso went through to create Guernica. Schama states that “What the painter was about to tackle (Guernica) would mark his place in the history of art.” Schama explains that Picasso wanted Guernica to be able to symbolise barbarities of the past and the future, not just the bombing of Guernica itself - “the painting needed to be timeless, it also had to have the feeling of a modern crime.” Schama believes that what Picasso was depicting had so much weight that it couldn’t just represent one specific event in history - and in that sense, Schama also believes that Picasso was incapable of painting Guernica using his own imagery/ideas - “The modernist called not just on his own ensemble of archetypes, but on the entire history of image-making. Old masters, such as Rubens and Goya, Christian apocalypse manuscripts and ancient sculpture were all called upon to help him in the superhuman effort.” Schama mentions specific paintings that Picasso used as inspiration for Guernica, including Goya’s 3rd of May, 1808, where Picasso takes the idea of light being a source of good and turning it into “the accomplice of evil.” Schama describes both Guernica and 3rd of May as a “nocturnal massacre” - and he believes that Goya’s idea of …show more content…
“Guernica is not a conventional history painting nor a factual recording of what happened, but a cubist apocalypse painted by the most revolutionary of modern artists.” Schama also comments on the timelessness of Guernica in ‘The Power of Art’. As Jones states, “In 1937 the courage of this painting was to tell the truth in an age of lies. That is still what it does.” He then goes on to say, “He (Picasso) was trying to show the truth so viscerally and permanently that it could outstare the daily lies of the age of dictators. Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia had huge pavilions at the 1937 exhibition where Guernica was unveiled, but Picasso - just one man bearing witness to the truth - painted the human reality of that vile time. It has outlasted all
The text itself accompanied a TV series of the same name, which Schama presented and wrote. In the text, Schama talks extensively about the process Picasso went through to create Guernica. Schama states that “What the painter was about to tackle (Guernica) would mark his place in the history of art.” Schama explains that Picasso wanted Guernica to be able to symbolise barbarities of the past and the future, not just the bombing of Guernica itself - “the painting needed to be timeless, it also had to have the feeling of a modern crime.” Schama believes that what Picasso was depicting had so much weight that it couldn’t just represent one specific event in history - and in that sense, Schama also believes that Picasso was incapable of painting Guernica using his own imagery/ideas - “The modernist called not just on his own ensemble of archetypes, but on the entire history of image-making. Old masters, such as Rubens and Goya, Christian apocalypse manuscripts and ancient sculpture were all called upon to help him in the superhuman effort.” Schama mentions specific paintings that Picasso used as inspiration for Guernica, including Goya’s 3rd of May, 1808, where Picasso takes the idea of light being a source of good and turning it into “the accomplice of evil.” Schama describes both Guernica and 3rd of May as a “nocturnal massacre” - and he believes that Goya’s idea of …show more content…
“Guernica is not a conventional history painting nor a factual recording of what happened, but a cubist apocalypse painted by the most revolutionary of modern artists.” Schama also comments on the timelessness of Guernica in ‘The Power of Art’. As Jones states, “In 1937 the courage of this painting was to tell the truth in an age of lies. That is still what it does.” He then goes on to say, “He (Picasso) was trying to show the truth so viscerally and permanently that it could outstare the daily lies of the age of dictators. Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia had huge pavilions at the 1937 exhibition where Guernica was unveiled, but Picasso - just one man bearing witness to the truth - painted the human reality of that vile time. It has outlasted all