Guernica as Aesthetic Realism

September 24, 2012
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Picasso's famous painting of Guernica

Dorothy Koppelman reads Picasso’s masterpiece through the lens of Aesthetic Realism, a movement founded by Eli Siegel on the idea that humanity should engage with the world through aesthetics:

Here, in Pablo Picasso’s angry yet monumental memorial to Guernica, sudden and wanton killing is presented in flat, clearly outlined, yet agonizingly cut off shapes. They overlap, meet, change places, and they are all grey, white and black. “The greatest mystery in painting,” Mr. Siegel commented, “is how one thing becomes another,” and “the other mystery is how the three-dimensionality of things can be shown on a flat surface.”

Read the whole essay here.

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2 Responses to “ Guernica as Aesthetic Realism ”

  1. Sally Ross on October 19, 2012 at 11:57 am

    This is a great article! It really makes you see the beauty that’s in Picasso’s “Guernica,” without diminishing the horror of war that it depicts. Thanks for publishing this!

  2. great on October 8, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    great