Requiem for Guernica (Mundo Obrero)

Antonio Saura, «Réquiem para el Guernica», Mundo Obrero, 1981, year III, num. 143, 10-24. The painter Antonio Saura writes an article on Guernica’s transfer to Spain, arguing that the work, which he describes as over mythicised, should have stayed in New York, as previously expressed with other artists, and that its recovery has been rash and clouded by the threat of lawsuits, the racket made by the media and the necessary measures for its protection. He asserts that its state of conservation and the complicated operation involved in moving it have made the work more fragile and turned it into a symbol of harmony, something it never was. He writes that he hopes that its “unmerited mausoleum” at least serves as an introduction to traditionally underappreciated contemporary art.