Pablo Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica became a major anti-war symbol after the bombing of a Spanish town.
Picasso painted Guernica in response to the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The bombing took place on 26 April 1937, and the large monochrome canvas was created for the Spanish Republican government’s pavilion at the Paris International Exposition later that year.
The painting shows fractured bodies, a bull, a wounded horse, and figures expressing terror and grief. Picasso avoided a literal battlefield scene, allowing the work to communicate broader ideas about civilian suffering and modern warfare. Its restricted black, white, and gray palette intensifies the newspaper-like visual impact.
Guernica is often grouped with Surrealism because of its distorted forms and dreamlike violence, although Picasso did not officially join the movement. The painting is now in Madrid’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, after long periods outside Spain.