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The Victory of Guernica by Eluard translated by Roland Penrose (a poem)

“The Woman the children have the same treasure

In their eyes

The men defend it asbest they can

The women the children have the same red roses

In their eyes

All show their blood

The fear and the courage of living and of dying

Death so hard and so easy

Men for whom this treasure was extolled

Men for whom this treasure was spoiled

Real men for whom despair

Feeds the devouring fire of hope

Let us open together the last bud of the future

Pariahs

Death earth and the vileness of our enemies

Have the monotonous colour of our night

The day will be ours” (80)

Picasso to Rafael Albert

“The truth of the matter is that by means of Guernica I have the pleasure of making a political statement every day in the middle of New York City.” (Ibid 178)

Inaki Anasagasti

“If people in Madrid truly believe the Basque country of Spain, then why couldn’t the painting be here, at least temporarily? After all, Picasso titled it Guernica, not Madrid. But because of a very strange bureaucratic process, technicians, rather than the politicians who represented the people, were controlling where the painting could be and where it could not be. We understood the concerns about the painting’s fragile condition, but please, this is an era in which we have put men on the moon. Surely we could safely bring Guernica to Gernika.” (330)

Saura who had played a role in the Guernica circus

“I detest the Sevillian architect Roberto Luna whose glass screen still protects Guernica’s Obscene dance.

I hate the El Corte Ingles supermarket window display that is Guernica.

I detest the transfer of Guernica to the central bus depot of the MNCARS Reina Sofia.

“I detest Dore Ashton, the American art critic, who was so clever as to declare Guernica is not contemporary art, it’s history.” (325)

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Sources:

Hensbergen, Gijs van. Guernica. New York : Blomsbury Publishing, 2004.