War, Art and "Guernica" 1937 "Guernica", filling an entire wall,
is surely the best-known 20th-century work of art. It relates to
a specific historical event, and expresses Picasso's political
commitment. For this reason, art and politics, the creative
hallmarks of the work and its historical circumstances, must be
treated as inseparable. By 1936 at the latest, Picasso's lack of
interest in current political events was at an end. In April
that year, the alliance of Socialists and Communists known as
the Popular Front came to power in France, a development
matching what had already been a reality for some months in
Spain. Since the end of the military dictatorship and the
proclamation of the republic on 14 April 1931, Spain had been
undergoing violent social and political upheaval. In 1934 the
moderate Republican and Socialist government was replaced by a
coalition of Monarchists and right-wing republicans, which
rescinded reforms. This prompted a miners' revolt and a general
strike - bloodily put down by the