Social cultural points

Question 1

Photography (1)

Answer 1

Broken camera of friend helped Picasso visualise multiple planes on one flat surface.

The horse in ‘Guernica’ is made up of multiple planes

Question 2

Photography (2)

Answer 2

Photography in the newspapers was how people learned about the horrors of the war in Spain.

The horse’s body is collaged with newspaper and painted to resemble a newspaper.

Question 3

Tribal art/Privitism (African masks)

Answer 3

Picasso enjoyed and was inspired by the exaggerated features on African masks.
The faces of the victims in the painting all have exaggerated/simplified facial features like their eyes or head shape.

Question 4

Paul Cezanne

Answer 4

Picasso was an admirer of Cézanne’s ability to paint realistic forms with geometic brush strokes.
The flattened forms and how they have been painted very flat but all have different planes. An example of this would be the bull or the horse.

Question 5

Spanish Civil War and Bombing of Gernika (1937) by German
Luftwaffe

Answer 5

Technology, bombing of ‘Guernica’ and the idea of “death from above”.
The lightbulb, unnatural light above the wreckage of the Basque town of ‘Guernica’. The mutilated animals, women and children

Question 6

Bullfighting motif used extensively in Picasso’s work before ‘Guernica’ painting

Answer 6

Picasso watched bullfighting as a young boy (aged 8) and bullfighting was considered Spain’s national pastime in the early 20th century.
The bull is seen as Spain’s national animal and therefore represents Spain in ‘Guernica’.

Question 7

Francisco Goya (1)

Answer 7

Goya was Picassos favourite painter and was influenced in particular his paintings of Spanish soldiers during the Napoleonic wars.
The subject matter contains a fallen soldier to an invading enemy (Germany instead of France).

Question 8

Franscico Goya (2)

Answer 8

Goya also painted bullfighting which was an interest of Picassos.
The bull in the top left corner of ‘Guernica’.

Question 9

Spanish bullfighting

Answer 9

Cruelty and spectacle, ritual sacrifice, man and beast.
Guernica - fallen matador, triumphant bull Vollard Suite - prints of bullfighting Minotauromacy (half bull half man)

Question 10

Candle symbolism

Answer 10

Young girl holding a candle against a minotaur.
Minotauromachy, innocence/hope versus violence/power