The Political Intentions of Pablo Picasso

Jordan Bailey

Pablo Picasso, the renowned and influential Spanish artist, created over 16,840 works in his lifetime. Included in that number are paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramic works. Picasso’s art has been widely studied, analyzed, and criticized since he emerged as a prominent artist of the 20th century. Many art historians and lovers of art have interpreted Picasso’s paintings in various manners throughout the years, and Lynda Morris’s exhibition in Liverpool aims to shed a new light on Picasso’s later works. For the last thirty years, Morris has been constructing an exhibition designed to illuminate the works of Picasso in a political light that has been largely ignored in recent years. Zoe Petersen, however, author of the article “Picasso: Peace and Freedom,” disagrees with the correlation that Morris attempts to draw between Picasso and politics, citing flaws in the exhibition’s major works such as The Charnel House, The Spaniards who Died for France, and The Rape of Sabine Women.

The inclusion of Picasso’s The Charnel House in Morris’s exhibition is intended to highlight the political intentions of Picasso in the 1940s. This painting responds to a film and photographs about the slaughter of a Spanish Republican family at the hands of the French during the Spanish Civil War. Morris argues that with this painting, “Picasso already had his eye on the relationship between painting and the mass media.” She goes on to claim that he “predates Warhol in his awareness” (Petersen). The Charnel House is commonly known as Picasso’s second major anti-war piece, after his 1937 painting, Guernica. The intent of The Charnel House was to cause outrage among the public, and Zoe Petersen argues that Picasso’s attempt blatantly fails and presents us instead with a “curiously unmoving image.” Petersen maintains that The Charnel House is simply a political reaction to a specific event, rather than the artist’s own perception of his life in political terms as is illustrated in Guernica. The Charnel House lacks a certain “depth and ambiguity” that is present in Guernica, according to Petersen.

Another work featured in Morris’s exhibition is Monument to the Spaniards who Died for France, a piece featuring an altar paying tribute to the dead Spaniards in World War II. The painting incorporates “a laurel-crowned bust on a draped plinth, a military bugle bearing the French colours, memento mori skull and bones, and, oddly, a couple of pot plants” (Petersen). The caricature-like construction of this work is said to illuminate the pretentiousness of the neo-classical style. Petersen argues that this piece does not support the theme of Morris’s exhibition, but disproves it by exposing to audiences that Picasso’s political movement was over by the time he painted Monument to the Spaniards who Died for France. Petersen explains that by the time this painting was finished at the end of World War II, Picasso had exhausted the use of political statements in his works and no longer found the theme urgent.

Another piece contained in the “Picasso: Peace and Freedom” exhibition is The Rape of Sabine Women. This painting illustrates Picasso’s correlation of suffering and surrender with the female gender. Morris argues that the women represented in this piece are an expression of fear of nuclear annihilation due to the Cuban missile crisis that was occurring at the time of the piece’s construction. Petersen agrees that Picasso probably felt the tension of the Cuban missile crisis during the 1960s, but argues that Picasso would still have painted The Rape of Sabine Women had the missile crisis not been happening. Petersen claims that the painting is a result of Picasso’s desire to take on Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, two neo-classical French painters, rather than a consequence of the missile crisis.

Although Morris’s exhibition begs viewers to consider the political implications of Picasso’s works, many art historians disagree with the assumed correlation.


Works Cited:
Petersen, Zoe. "Picasso Peace and Freedom." Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 24.6 (2010): 749-767. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. < http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=3&sid=280c28fe-725d-46f7-8ee1-36e1c4803ac3@sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl