The bull is ugly because that was what the Spanish Civil War did to Picasso's native Spain. The artist was a huge supporter of the Republic and the conflict with ensuing victory by the Nationalist forces under Franco was a bitter disappointment. read more
Pablo Picasso's Guernica Painting Influences & Cubism The chaos caused by Europe's political instability is evident in Guernica's composition, with humans and animals jumbled together into a background of broken hard-edged geometric shapes, reminiscent of Cubism. read more
Guernica is a mural-sized oil painting on canvas by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso completed in June 1937, at his home on Rue des Grands Augustins, in Paris. The painting, now in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, was done with a palette of gray, black, and white, and is regarded by many art critics as one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history. read more