Today I am thrilled to announce a commission from an L.A. art collector to copy Pablo Picasso’s pacifist mural of the nazi and fascist bombing of Guernica, Spain, painted in his home in 1937. Check for updates below.
MATERIALS
While large, this painting is a fraction of the original size. At almost 9 feet long, 48 x 106 in, ” unframed (35 sq ft). It will be the largest oil painting I’ve ever made, but not the largest painting, which is FEM Mural 96 x 80 in (53.6 sq ft). I am already studying the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía resources on this work.
Also, this commission sadly timed with the Rockefeller family taking back a tapestry reproduction of Guernica from the U.N.
PROGRESS
I stretched my own canvases for FEM Mural and We The People (80 x 60 in), but now that I’m running a gallery as well as a mask and sustainable gift business, I was happy to discover Square Deal Framing builds frames and stretches canvas. The complete canvas should be ready for delivery Saturday morning, and our son’s Bar Mitzvah is that evening!! I provided the canvas to the framer which is rolled out for trimming in this photograph (artHYPE, Noho - Anthony E. Hobson’s works on paper on display through March 15).
First Five Days
It’s raw and rough for the most part, I’ve spent the week making sure the architecture is correct and the relationships between shapes make sense in the drawing. Values need adjusting and many more details will be added, and refining will take place over the next four weeks.
Picasso was a fascinating painter, it’s no wonder this was his masterpiece. Guernica incorporates cubism, symbolism, surrealism, including beautiful lines and shapes that appear to be inspired by Matisse. I had never noticed that all the scenes take place inside architectural elements. There are interesting groupings, for body parts, and the fascinating light symbols tumbling together above the horse. Sun, Light, Lamp, in the middle of the composition.
Two Weeks
The painting has been in the studio for three weeks, but for one week I was mostly working on the Rebel Talent exhibition.
I became more careful about values and details as I moved from right to left. I was very loosely applying paint in the beginning, trying to figure out the complex composition most of all. Many analysts think about this composition in thirds, but I see it in halfs or quarters. The right half is far more abstract that the left. I was initially feeling challenged by the left side because there are so many figures and shapes. The left side also bears the most emotional impact, with the tragic mother and child suffering under the bull, and the detailed soldier on the bottom.
I became very interested in the symbolism here, because the bull doesn’t seem to be destroying anything, but most agree, and Picasso has stated that the Bull represents chaos, darkness and fascism. The horse represents the people of Guernica, fighting back and suffering. Analysts believe the electric bulb in the sun refers to the “bombs” and new tech that Germany used on innocent civilians. He read about this in the newspaper, and he creates a newspaper-like pattern on much of the horse (I’ll add this soon).
The bird fading into the background is the dove of peace. We can draw a triangle between the dove, the flower in the soldier’s hand, and the Russian crescent by the ghost figure of the right. In 1927, Picasso saw Russia as a positive ally for the people of Spain. Picasso’s lawyer, Roland Dumas, mentioned the rivalry between Russian and German painters during the French art exposition of the 1930s.
I listened to part of Picasso’s lawyer’s fascinating recollection of moving Guernica to Spain in the early 80s.
Three to SIX WeekS
This project went quickly! The final installation picture is with the Master Reproductions below, and here are the last weeks of work in progress.
MASTER REPRODUCTIONS
GUERNICA BY PABLO PICASSO, 1/4 of the original reproduction
Oil on canvas, 48 x 106 in, Commissioned for a home in Los Angeles, CA in 2021
Synagogue in Frankfurt by Max Beckmann, Reproduction
Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 in, Commissioned by a CSUN university librarian in 2016.
Mondrian TV
Water-based enamel on upcycled Styrofoam, 37 x 60 in, 2020. An interpretation of Mondrian’s Large Red composition (2020 created for fun, now in a private collection in Los Angeles)
“
First let me tell you that every day when I wake up and see your work I get to appreciate it more and it’s probably one of the best decisions of my life to go ahead with this project.”