According to a recent news story on excite.com, Pablo Picasso’s famous Guernica painting is in pretty robust shape -- despite its long history of travel.
Art preservation experts at the Reina Sofia art museum are currently taking X-rays of the enormous painting (it's 11' x 25' , if you can imagine!), and the initial results show no major damage over the last 10 years. This is great news, because the last time it was examined (about 10 years ago), experts found 129 imperfections, including stains, creases, cracks and other marks.
Commissioned by the Republican government of Spain in 1937, Guernica spent over 20 years on the road after its first showing at the Universal Exposition in Paris. A powerfully political piece, the painting was created in protest of Spain’s bloody civil war under General Francisco Franco and toured dozens of cities in North America and Europe.
With every new venue, the painting had to be rolled up and then unrolled again -- which obviously gave the piece a bit of wear and tear! Eventually, in the early 1960s, Picasso decided to leave Guernica on display at MOMA, where it stayed until it was transferred back to Spain in 1981, after the country's civil war ended.
They say that Guernica is one of the most studied artworks in art history -- and you can certainly see why. It's an incredibly powerful piece, both politically and artistically, and it's a great testament to the suffering, and eventual triumph, of the people of Spain
Picasso was such a multifaceted artist. Be sure to check out our entire collection of his work!
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