Spanish Civil War

Poster Spanish Civil War, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans by Savador Dali

John Horsfield will be giving us a look what happened to make this an historic moment. A Powerpoint presentation will accompany the text in the first three sessions with the final session being all on Power Point.

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso depicting the bombing of Guernica,
Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist Forces, on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso to create a large mural for the Spanish display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) Paris International Exposition in the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.

Salvador Dali was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter best known for his bizarre images. The painting, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (premonition of civil war) by Salvador Dali, was created in Spain in 1936. This painting was done by Salvador Dali during a time of political change in Spain which essentially caused the Spanish Civil war. Dalí was openly against war, and used this painting to show it. (Wikipedia) The painting was created to illustrate what he believed would happen during the Spanish civil war depicting a grimacing, hideously deformed human being whom is dismembered. This is symbolic of the Spanish state in civil war. Not only is the human disjointed, but it seems as if the different parts are strangling each other. Decaying hands and feet extend from the dismembered body parts as well as the dysfunctional body parts that lay at the bottom of the painting. It is possible that the boiled beans refer to the smell of the bodies of priests that were burnt by the fascists. I believe that Dali was trying to give the painting a scent of war. The painting seems to draw your attention to the box created by the body parts. It is a reminder of how civil wars are self-mutilating and ugly.