Bombing of Guernica; The Picasso painting........

[Englander]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica

>>The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on April 26,1937,during the Spanish Civil War by the German squadron known as the Condor Legion against the Basque city of Guernica.It was the first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.

Consequences of the attack
>>The attacks created a firestorm and destroyed nearly the entire town. Three quarters of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and most others were damaged. Among the few buildings spared were the arms factories of Unceta and Company and Talleres de Guernica and the Assembly House (Casa de Juntas) and the Oak. The bridge, the overt target of the early Italian attack, survived.

>>There are no generally accepted official figures as to the number of casualties. Estimates range from as few as 120 dead to as many as 10,000, with the consensus standing close to the 1,650 that the Basque government of the time gave as the miniumum number of dead. The dead appear to have been mostly old people, women, and children.

>>The bombardment of Guernica rapidly became a world-renowned symbol of the horrors of war.It inspired one of Pablo Picasso's most famous paintings,known simply as "Guernica"....





Well,with the Nazi Luftwaffe,you knew where you stood;
they did not insult your intelligence by claiming that
homicide,incineration & dismemberment were not in their nature,
or that the bombardments would only hit evil-doers..

[Guy_Montag]

1. Did Colin Powel not arrange to have the copy in UN covered

during a press conference prior to the invasion.

[Englander]

2. Yes,after his anthrax presentation last year.....Pathetic,really...

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0209-04.htm


Also,I think it is the original artwork,not a copy.Or it's a "tapestry" of the original.Not sure what that means?

[indigobusiness]

3. I believe that the original painting was returned to Spain

(Barcelona?) and in its place, at the UN, a facsimile was hung.

I'm curious about the tapestry reference, as well. It must be a woven image? That is fascinating.

It could be that they felt a painted reproduction would've been an insult to the original, and another medium more of an homage?



Guernica at the United Nations
A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room. It was placed there as a reminder of the horrors of war. On January 27, 2003, a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations. On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Diplomats, however, told journalists that the Bush Administration leaned on UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war on Iraq.

(Seems they felt the need to lie about even this.)

[izzie]

4. This painting has always made people up-tight.

Paintings worked like many of our films do now. People do not seem to like to think of war as being about death for some odd reason. It is like the movie on JC, they have painted it for years but we only wish to see the nice painting. Life Mag. once printed the dead men of WW2 and people really started to see what the war was about.

[indigobusiness]

5. It's always been my favorite Picasso. It makes my pulse race.

I could sit in front of it for hours.

[indigobusiness]

6. Well said.

Well,with the Nazi Luftwaffe,you knew where you stood;
they did not insult your intelligence by claiming that
homicide,incineration & dismemberment were not in their nature,
or that the bombardments would only hit evil-doers..

--

That deserves its own thread.

[Smeggy]

7. The mjor difference is

that the people there were white and thereforew the mass media forces us to care about that.