The Museum of Contemporary Art Reina Sofia in Madrid last week celebrated the 30th anniversary of the arrival in Spain, after nearly half a century in exile, of “Guernica“, the famous painting by Pablo Ruiz Picasso painted in Paris during the Spanish Civil War.
Becoming a universal symbol of the cruelty of war, the great black and white canvas of Picasso never set foot on Spanish soil until 1981, forced into exile during the long dictatorship of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975).
“Guernica” has an important “meaning not only from an artistic standpoint, which is of unquestionable universal value, but also for its symbolic value against war and all its violence,” said Rosario Peiro, Head of Collections of the Reina Sofía.
Painted by Picasso in Paris in 1937, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government, denounces the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by Hitler’s Nazi planes, an ally of Franco.
“From the point of view, specifically Spanish, it is a document of what happened in Spain at the time,” said Peiro, head of the museum that houses the masterpiece from 1992.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) “Guernica” toured incessantly throughout Europe and the United States to raise funds to help the fight against Franco before being entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA ) in the late 50’s.
Three years before his death in 1973, “Picasso wrote to MoMA” asking “that they only return it when Guernica in Spain had back its civil liberties,” said Peiro.
Shortly after the death of Franco in 1975, the Spanish parliament began procedures to reclaim its return from the New York museum.
And in September 10, 1981, protected by thick bulletproof glass, “Guernica” made its triumphant arrival in Madrid.
The famous painting is currently the main protagonist of a war between the contemporary art museum Reina Sofia and the Prado Museum, and a battle with some political leaders of the Basque Country, where the town of Guernica is located, who also claim it.
This is a work which is both “iconic” and “central” to the collection of the Reina Sofia, and its “very delicate” condition prevents any movement, claimed in March 2010 the directors of the museum of contemporary art.
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