毕加索：愤怒揭露战争真相

1937年4月26日，德国法西斯空军恣意轰炸了西班牙历史名城——风光旖旎的小镇格尔尼卡，当时恰逢集市，无数无辜平民丧生，格尔尼卡被夷为平地。这一事件震撼了全世界，也震撼了毕加索。愤怒的天才画家毕加索，挥笔创作了大型油画《格尔尼卡》。七十多年过去了，这幅杰作已经成为警示战争灾难的文化符号之一，也使格尔尼卡的悲剧永远留在了人类伤痕累累的记忆中。

There is little argument that Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is the Twentieth Century’s greatest and most influential artist. Picasso was a genius. His paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures reveal endless creativity and passion for life. His works range from realistic to abstract: the Blue, Rose, and African periods, Analytical and Synthetic Cubism, Neo-Classicism, Surrealism. Picasso was not true to a style. He was true to the power of personal expression.

Picasso was born and educated in Spain. Although Picasso spent much of his career in the avant-garde capital city of Paris, he had a strong emotional and cultural connection to his Spanish roots.

Picasso was not a political artist. However, he was so enraged by the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War (a conflict created by the Fascist coup, of General Francisco Franco and the Nationalists, of the elected Republican government), that he became political. In support of Spanish Republican forces, Picasso painted a mural for the 1937 World’s Fair, in Paris. The inspiration for the subject of the mural occurred on April 26, 1937.

With General Franco’s approval, Nazi and Italian Fascist forces brutally attacked the small town of Guernica, in the north of Spain. Ancient Guernica was an important political and cultural center of the Basque region, the area most resistant to Franco’s Fascism. The men of Guernica were off fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The remaining citizens were unarmed civilians.

The attack of Guernica came on a Monday afternoon. It was market day. Many people gathered in the center of town to shop for the week. From about 4:30 in the afternoon until 7:30 in the evening, German and Italian planes dropped twenty-two tons of bombs on a village measuring only 3 square miles. Military forces then swooped down to machine gun the fleeing population. Fires burned for three days. Roads and bridges to escape the inferno had been destroyed. Contemporary records estimate 1,650 people were killed. Most of them were women, children, the sick, and the elderly.

The purpose of the bombing of Guernica was to terrorize and intimidate the Basque population. For Nazi forces, it also served as a practice exercise in the technique of saturation bombing. The result was international outcry—and an artistic attack by the greatest living artist. Eyewitness accounts and photographs of the violence appeared in newspapers within days of the attack. Picasso was enraged by the slaughter of innocents and he immediately began work on his composition. Fueled with conviction and urgency, Picasso’s abstract masterpiece with a message took little more than a month to complete. At the time, Picasso wrote, “…painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.”

Picasso’s mural, Guernica, is enormous. It measures approximately 11’ X 25’ feet (349 cm × 776 cm) and has a stunning physical presence. Just as tragic news reports and photos appeared in newsprint, the mural is limited to monochromatic tones of black, white, and gray. The viewer is overwhelmed by the drama; there is no escape from facing the horror.

Picasso fills the wide rectangular canvas with abstracted human and animal forms. The chaos and panic of the bomb scene is shown in flat, Cubist planes. Animals and humans are reduced to simple, angular shapes that increase the tension and frantic movement. Body parts are disjointed from violent destruction. Facial features are distorted in pain. Figures are shown from multiple perspectives. The viewer is aware of all aspects of their suffering. No matter their pose, the dead and living communicate their situation with a pair of eyes. The viewer is overwhelmed by the carnage; there is no escape from seeing the horror.

Guernica is filled with a variety of characters. Picasso carefully organizes the suffering and chaos around a central triangle. A fallen warrior forms the base of the triangle, his severed arm holds a broken sword. A horse, with a spear in her side, shrieks in agony and forms the top of the triangle. Above the horse is an electric light bulb, a reference to bombs, and perhaps a negative reference to technology. From the far right, a woman rushes into scene with hands open to help, but is weary from the struggle. Above her, a frightened woman leans out a window with a candle to light the scene with a flicker of hope.

The central triangle in the mural is balanced by the strong vertical emphasis of the right and left sides. On the far right, a woman screams as she falls through the floor of a burning building. On the far left, a woman holds her dead child and howls in pain. The intact figure of the bull looks upon the violence without emotion. According to the artist, the bull represents the power of “brutality and darkness.” The viewer is overwhelmed by the pain; there is no escape from hearing the horror.

Picasso said: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” The attack on Guernica inspired the passion and genius of Pablo Picasso to reveal his truth about war: war is not about power and glory, war is about pain, suffering, and death. Although Guernica was created in 1937, the universal truth of the work transcends decades and borders. It is as powerful an iconic image in the Twenty-First Century, as in the Twentieth. Picasso’s Guernica insists that viewers remain overwhelmed by the horrors of war.

巴勃罗•毕加索(1881-1973)是二十世纪最伟大、最有影响力的艺术家，这是不争的事实。毕加索是一位天才。他的油画、素描、雕刻以及雕塑作品向世人展现了无尽的创造力和对生命的热爱。其作品涵盖了现实主义和抽象色彩：从蓝色时期、玫瑰时期、非洲时期，解析立体主义和合成立体主义时期，到新古典主义时期，乃至超现实主义。他真实地捍卫着自我表现的力量。

毕加索出生于西班牙，并在此接受教育。尽管他在前卫之都巴黎度过了他艺术生涯的大多数时期，但他仍然深爱着故土西班牙，并对其文化情有独钟。

毕加索并非一位天生的政治艺术家。然而，1936年到1939年爆发的西班牙内战(一场由法西斯叛乱引发的冲突，在弗朗西斯科•佛朗哥将军领导的国民军和当选的共和政府之间展开)让他义愤填膺，他自此接触政治。为了表示对西班牙共和政府的支持，毕加索为1937年的世界博览会创作了一幅壁画。这幅壁画主题的灵感来自1937年4月26日。

这天，在佛朗哥将军的首肯下，纳粹和意大利的法西斯武装野蛮袭击了西班牙北部小镇格尔尼卡。古老的格尔尼卡是巴斯克地区一个重要的政治、文化中心，也是反对佛朗哥法西斯主义的呼声最高的地区。格尔尼卡的男人都投身于西班牙内战中，留守的都是手无寸铁的平民。

对格尔尼卡的袭击发生在一个星期一的下午，恰逢集市。许多人聚集在镇中心采购一周的物品。从当天下午四点半到傍晚七点半，德国和意大利的飞机向这个仅有3平方英里的小镇扔下了22吨炸弹。武装力量随后进行了扫荡，用机枪扫射四处逃散的人群。大火燃烧了三天，而可以逃生的道路和桥梁早已被摧毁。当代的记录表明，约有1650人遇难，其中大多数为老幼妇孺。

轰炸格尔尼卡的目的是恐吓和震慑巴斯克地区的人民。对于纳粹武装来说，还是饱和轰炸技术的一次实战演习。其结果是引起了国际公愤——以及一位当时最伟大的艺术家的艺术反击。袭击之后的几天，目击者的描述以及暴行的图片便见诸各大报端。对无辜群众的屠杀，让毕加索义愤填膺，他立即开始为他的作品构图。满怀信念和急迫之情，毕加索仅仅花了一个月时间便完成了这幅传递重要信息的抽象巨作。当时，毕加索写道：“……这幅油画不是为了装饰公寓而作，而是一件作战的武器。”

毕加索的壁画《格尔尼卡》堪称巨作。它面积约有11×25英尺(349 厘米 × 776厘米)，观之者无不为之动容。就像悲剧资讯和照片出现在报端一样，壁画只使用了黑、白、灰三种单色色调。观众被画中的情节所震撼，面对惨状，无处可逃。

毕加索在这条宽阔的长条形帆布上填满了抽象的人体和动物肢体。炸弹轰炸时的混乱和恐慌场景通过立体主义的手法展现出来。动物和人被处理成了简单的、有棱有角的形状，使他们的举止更显得紧张疯狂。由于粗暴的破坏，很多肢体都是断裂的。面部扭曲，痛苦不堪。人物形象从多重角度凸显出来，观众对他们的诸般痛苦感同身受。无论他们的姿态如何，无论是已死去或仍尚存一口呼吸，都用双眼传达出他们绝望处境。观众被画中的残杀所震撼，仿佛耳闻众生的尖叫，无处可逃。

画中充满了各种人物。毕加索围绕画面中心的三角形来精心构思、安排这场混乱。三角形底部是一位倒地的战士，断臂中举着一柄断剑。三角形的顶部是一匹侧面中箭受伤的马，濒死长嘶，痛苦万分。马的上方是一个电灯泡，隐射造成这场灾难的炸弹，也可能暗示科技带来的负面作用。从画面的最右侧闯进一位妇女，她张开双手求救，神情却已在挣扎中显得疲惫不堪。在她上方，另一个惊恐的妇女探出窗外，手举烛火，一丝希望之光照亮了整个画面。

画面左右两端的垂直图像使中心的这个三角形构成了平衡。在最右端，一位妇女从一栋着火的大楼掉下，惊声尖叫。在最左端，一位妇女怀抱夭折的孩子，失声痛哭。一个完整的公牛形象面无表情地仰望这场暴力。根据毕加索自述，这头公牛象征着“野蛮和黑暗”的势力。观众被画面所传达的痛苦所震撼，耳中充斥着恐惧之声。

毕加索说：“我们都知道，艺术并非真实。它是让我们认识真相的一个谎言。”……对格尔尼卡的袭击激发了巴勃罗•毕加索的创作热情和天赋，让他挥笔揭露战争的真相：战争无关权力和荣誉，它带来的是痛苦和死亡。尽管《格尔尼卡》创作于1937年，但作品反映的普遍真理早已超越了时间，超越了国界。在二十一世纪，它同样具有在二十世纪强有力的标志性意义。毕加索的《格尔尼卡》强调，人们应该继续被战争的恐怖所震撼。