Why re-visiting can be more inspiring than first-time visits: My experience of Guernica at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid

For this post, I would like to take the opportunity to share my experience at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid in March.

El Museo Reina Sofía

El Museo Reina Sofía was inaugurated in September 1992 and is Spain’s national museum of 20th-century art. Most of the exhibitions consist of Spanish art, in particular, Spain’s two greatest artists from the 20th century: Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.

When I visited the museum with a friend from Copenhagen this March, it was, in fact, the museum’s most famous artwork that touched me the most: Guernica.

Pablo Picasso & Guernica — Background

Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881- April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and theatre designer. He is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and is known for co-founding the cubist movement, the invention of constructed culture, and the co-invention of the collage. While Picasso was originally born in Málaga, Spain, he spent most of his life in France.

Pablo Picasso’s piece of art “Guernica” is an oil painting from 1937. It is considered the most powerful anti-war painting and one of his best-known works. The painting is completely black, grey, and white and portrays the chaos of suffering of people and animals in Guernica. Guernica, the holy city of the Basque Country, is located in the north of Spain close to Bilbao. During the Spanish Civil War, on April 26, 1937, the town was bombed by warplanes of the Nazi Germany Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria. Guernica was part of the so-called “iron belt” around Bilbao. Two days after the bombing, National Spanish troops marched into Guernica, or let’s say to what was left of it. While Pablo Picasso had already been commissioned to create a painting for the World Exhibition in Paris 1937 by the Spanish government in 1936, he discarded his original idea after the attack on Guernica on April 26, 1937. The work shows the endless suffering of the people and the destruction of Guernica, and it was also a major critique of Pablo Picasso towards the hated Francoists.

Short Description of the Work

Guernica, entirely painted in black, white, and grey, shows neither airplanes nor explosives nor does the painting contain any further references to the perpetrators. The focus of the work is on the victims in the center, their eyes directed towards the sky, towards the enemy. Guernica shows a fleeing woman and a woman on fire, a mother with a dead child located in a room of a basement, a warrior, a bull, a horse, and a light bearer. What is unique is that the composition, the colors, and the atmosphere are depressingly realistic, at least for me, as someone who has not had any direct exposure to a war situation before.

“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.” (Pablo Picasso)

Why Guernica? What made my experience so special?

Now, why am I sharing my experience of Picasso’s work, why Guernica, you might wonder. When I go to an exhibition, I usually (subconsciously) categorize works in three different categories: The ones I look at, and acknowledge, but forget after a few days, the ones I remember for a few years although I don’t know why, and the ones that touch me, inspire me, and get me to start thinking.

It was not the first time for me to visit el Museo Reina Sofía. I was there for the first time 8 years ago with my high school and another time 2 years ago when I lived in Madrid. However, this time, my perspective on Guernica was different. The first time I saw Guernica, I was impressed by the composition of the work and the unique shapes of the different elements, which remained in my memory ever since. This time, however, Guernica looked similar to what I have been seeing on the news every single night in the past months. What was once distant suddenly became very real. 8 years ago, I was impressed by the dimensions and all the people around the work. This time, I suddenly felt this overarching depression of the work. I realized that I have started to see more details in Picasso’s work because the topic “war” has a more central importance in my brain at the moment given the current global developments.

This experience has shown me the value of re-visiting things, ideas, places, and in this case, art. In my opinion, re-visiting can often be more enriching than seeing something new. We think we know the directions, and the idea, and have seen the exhibition, but we don’t. First, it’s hard to grasp every detail the first time. Second, our perspectives change every time! What has determined what I saw and interpreted when looking at Guernica was my surroundings and experiences, which shaped my perspective and sensitivity to details. Another factor to consider is the person you are sharing the experience with. Are you sharing your observations? Do you observe on your own? Or together? Do you get distracted? When I visited for the first time, I thought I had the full picture of the work, but in reality, that turned out not to be the case. Have I now seen and interpreted every detail of Picasso’s work? Probably not! The capability to explore all the details and nuances of it depends on my assumptions and experiences that shape my perspective and focus. I don’t know if revisiting the exhibition another time will change my observations and feelings about the work, but after this experience, I would strongly assume so.

Connection to the course & beyond

If you are like me, you probably like quick answers, being part of a positive development (that you can influence), and most importantly, understanding what is happening. Most of us are not always patient. Especially in business schools, we might have a tendency, that we love having quick answers that we can put on our slides. This artistic experience showed me that we constantly need to become aware of our own experiences and assumptions when looking at someone’s idea, story, or problem. After living abroad for almost 6 years, I often see things quite differently than I did back in high school. Is it the circumstance that changed, or perhaps just my perspective? Well, Guernica has not changed since I visited 8 years ago for the first time. What has changed, is the world around it and the experiences that determine my perspective every single day.

Have you had a similar experience when revisiting an exhibition, a place, an idea, a problem, or even a person? Let me know in the comments below!