The icons of the bombing of Guernica and its conflicts

Abstract

The aerial bombardment suffered by the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War created a great commotion worldwide. Pablo Picasso painted a picture called Guernica that was shown in the International Exhibition of Paris, celebrated in 1937, turning it into the icon of the genocide suffered by that place. At the same time, since the Spanish Civil War was an important experience for the modern press photography, it calls the attention that the icon is a painting and not a photograph. Therefore this article analyzes the reasons why the pictorial expression imposed itself on the photographic expression, as well as the passage of the symbol represented by Picasso.