Guernica and the abstract representation of terror

This is a short feature about Guernica and its afterlife: its travels and its composition, and what it means to stop and look at Guernica today. This feature is neither a chronological account of the painting’s history and meanings nor a survey of Picasso’s life. It is simply a hypothesis about the representation of terror, based on the insights of the curators of Pity and Terror in Picasso and on the documentation compiled for the Guernica microsite on the Museo Reina Sofía website. It is structured around three themes—the bombing, the journeys and the painting itself—explored through a series of short narratives that seek to understand the iconic status of this work.