Guernica
ever since I was little, I have loved that painting. I remember discovering it in _The Book of Knowledge_ or some such approved book for me to browse. I turned the page and there it was, and I was in awe, transfixed, inarticulate. only after staring at it, at the bull, at every section of the painting, soaking in that this was a painting, but it was so unlike any other painting I'd ever seen in other books! only after simmering in amazement for many seconds did I try to show it to an adult. "Look!" I said reverently. "Oh, Picasso," whoever it was dismissed. it was another piece of evidence that grownups didn't know squat about the world I lived in. I didn't know until later that it was indeed a Picasso, that it was his response to the Nazi bombing of the little town Guernica. I didn't know until much much later that Guernica was a Basque town, bombed more because it was a Basque town than for any military purpose. those only enriched that initial awe and inarticulateness. I can still sit and stare at an image of it.
http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp
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