Picasso's War: The Destruction of Guernica and Picasso's Masterpiece [Hardcover]

'With GUERNICA, Picasso writes our letter of doom: all that we love is going to be lost, and that is why it is necessary that we gather up all that we love, like the emotions of great farewells, in something of unforgettable beauty' Michel Leiris, French poet, after seeing the painting first displayed in June 1937

Picasso's greatest work, Guernica, is acclaimed as the ultimate artistic comment on war. Even now, decades after its creation, it is impossible to look at the painting without a deep sense of shock. That was exactly what Picasso hoped when in a frenzy of creativity he began work on his enormous masterpiece. In this lucid and moving book, bestselling writer Russell Martin (author of Beethoven's Hair) tells how the work came into being, what influence it has had since its creation in 1937, and how it changed the personality of the artist. Picasso was living in Paris during the Spanish Civil War but his sympathies were with the leftists. But politics aside, he was as sickened as most decent people when Hitler sent in his Luftwaffe, at the request of General Franco, to attack the Basque town of Guernica. It was the first large-scale military attack against civilians in modern times - and an ominous precursor to what would happen to London and other British cities. On April 26 1937 Hitler's bombers destroyed Guernica in just over three hours, killing many thousands of civilians. Outraged, Picasso immediately began work on what was to become one of the most influential paintings of the 20th century. Picasso himself wrote: 'An artist is a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking things that happen in the world. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.' In this case, Guernica remains an icon of all that is most repugnant about man's inhumanity. Martin writes with a passion of his own, describing in a dramatic way his reaction on seeing the painting for the first time on what was to prove another infamous date - September 11 2001. His book is not just about art or politics, nor even history and conscience. It is a mix of each of those things and is almost as salutary as its subject. (Kirkus UK)

Imaginative cultural historian Martin (Beethoven's Hair, 2000, etc.) crafts a well-integrated and fascinating account of Picasso's famous painting and the horrible events that inspired it. The author's signature approach to seemingly offbeat subjects is careful research filtered through a novelistic sensibility to grasp the inherent story, which he unfolds in the engaging, almost offhand manner of a fictional amateur sleuth. Martin is, first and foremost, a consummate storyteller who deftly weaves such multiple disciplines as politics, history, art, science, and even current events into a narrative forming a coherent whole. A case in point is his handling here of the motivation behind Picasso's change of heart regarding his previous, adamantly apolitical stance on the Spanish Civil War, then only a few months old. Commissioned by a Republican delegation to devise a prominent work for the courtyard of the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, Picasso, who disdained "poster" (i.e., political) art, originally contemplated a mural whose subject would be the artist in his studio. But the brutal attack on the civilian population of the Basque town Gernika, intended by Franco and his Nazi allies to inspire terror and capitulation, had an energizing effect on the artist. Within two weeks of Gernika's bombardment and strafing by Goering's Luftwaffe, Picasso was hard at work on the monumental canvas that was to become the most political artwork of the 20th century. Martin goes beyond the obvious, however, in providing additional, less well-known motives for Picasso's sudden engagement. Having agreed to become the titular director of the Museo del Prado in September of the previous year, the artist was outraged by Franco's barbaric disregard for the safety of the nation's treasures and quietly agreed to their removal to safety in Valencia. An engrossing story of a landmark work of art and the struggle "to fashion meaning out of unimaginable evil, once more to offer hope." (Kirkus Reviews)

'[Martin] has produced a skilful blend of art, politics and history.'