Guernica

Painted in response to the 1937 bombing of Guernica, Picasso’s monumental black, white, and grey canvas transforms civilian suffering into a stark anti-war image. Its fractured figures, blazing light, and compressed space have made it one of the most enduring statements of modern art and political protest.

Commissioned by the Spanish Republican government for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition; later exhibited internationally, entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art for safekeeping, and transferred to Spain in 1981. Since 1992, housed at the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.