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ukrainePresident Volodymyr Zelensky visited pablo picasso‘S Guernica during his one day visit spain,
It was a move full of symbolism.
Guernica Shows the horrors of war – particularly the bombing of civilian targets.
The huge, black-and-white painting includes screaming women, swaying horses and a wounded bull. Picasso used them to depict a bombing Nazi and fascist Italian War planes over the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
The painting’s distorted, Cubist figures have since become a symbol of suffering, violence, and resistance.
But united nationsA tapestry of it hangs over the entrance security councilroom of, where Russia It is one of five countries with a permanent seat.
Zelensky had previously referenced the painting. In April 2022, just months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he addressed the Spanish Parliament remotely, saying: “Imagine that people now – Europe – Staying in basements for weeks to save lives. By shelling, by air bombs. Daily! April 2022 – and the reality in Ukraine is as if it is April 1937. When the whole world came to know the name of one of your cities – Guernica,
This painting has also had other famous visitors. former us president Barack Obama Saw it on a visit with King Felipe VI of Spain in 2018. novelist Salman Rushdie came to see GuernicaThat too, a few years later, he lost the sight of one eye due to a knife attack.
,Guernica It is probably the first anti-war painting in the world,” said Giles Tremlett, a historian who has written extensively about Spain under the former dictator general. francisco franco“It represents something that has had continuity since then…and is highly visible in Ukraine today, so it feels highly appropriate,”
The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, after which Franco ruled as dictator until his death on November 20, 1975 – almost fifty years ago.
Picasso was banned from showing the painting in Spain while Franco was in power, so it was loaned new york‘S Museum of Modern Art in 1939 and was displayed there for decades.
The painting returned to Spain in 1981, a few months after Spain’s young democracy survived an attempted military coup, considered the last serious attempt to reverse its transition to democracy.
“When Guernica “For us, who came to Spain in 1981, it was a symbol of hope that there was no way to go back to Spain,” said Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez, a professor. Spanish History at Trent University Canada,
Zelensky’s tour of European capitals including Spain underlines KyivThere is an urgent need to reassure allies and continue to increase support for Ukraine. Engaging stakeholders through speeches in parliaments and presence at major forums has become a hallmark of his leadership.
The efforts come amid growing pressures at home and abroad as damaging corruption scandals and other domestic tensions threaten to distract from the war effort.