CNN on Picasso's Guernica

Back when I started this blog I stated that one of the driving forces behind it was my desire to set the things straight when it comes to what the mass produced media (what else can you get but poor quality) says about the Basques.

Well, here you have a prime example, I found this article published a year ago, roughly. The propaganda starts right at the beginning with the word "separatism", it follows blindly what the propaganda generated in Madrid wants you to believe, that the Basque Country has always been a part of Spain. The truth is, the Basque Country (then known as the Kingdom of Navarre) was a sovereign and independent political entity for over 800 years by the time it was conquered by Spain and France. So what the Basques pursue is not separatism but independence, the one they once enjoyed. So the correct title should be "The art of Basque independentism".

Here you have it:

The art of Basque separatism

May 22, 2002 Posted: 6:24 AM EDT (1024 GMT)

By Paul Sussman, CNN.com writer

LONDON, England (CNN) -- For most people, the issue of Basque separatism is inextricably bound up with the violent activities of secessionist group ETA.

While the latter makes its point with bombs and guns, however, a very different assertion of Basque identity is to be found in the world of art.

Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica, one of the great masterpieces of modern art, is for many Basques the supreme symbol of their struggle for nationhood.

"It is the most ubiquitous painting in reproduction form in the Basque country," says Juan Vidarte, director of the Guggenheim Art Museum, Bilbao. "It's everywhere, from modern apartments to traditional farm houses."

Picasso painted the huge black and white, oil-on-canvas mural in 1937 in response to the bombing of the northern Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

Spanish town? Paul Sussman is talking about then Basques yet Gernika is a Spanish town? Talk about bias.

The attack, on April 26, 1937, was carried out by German warplanes at the request of nationalist leader General Francisco Franco, and was one of the first instances of saturation bombing being used against a specifically non-military target.

The town was all-but destroyed during the raid, and an estimated 1,500 civilians killed, although the precise death toll has never been firmly established.

Paul Sussman puts the figure of the death toll in doubt, I invite him to try that one on the six million figure of the Jewish people killed during the Holocaust.

The outrage carried particular resonance for the Basque people because of Guernica's status as their ancient capital.

It was here, beneath the giant Oak of Guernica, that they held their annual assembly, and here that successive generations of Spanish kings had, since medieval times, sworn to guarantee Basque autonomy.

The town's destruction, as immortalised in Picasso's painting, thus came to symbolize not merely a human tragedy, but a specifically Basque one.

"The painting has enormous importance for the Basque people," says Vidarte, "Not only in artistic terms, but in social, historical and political ones too."

A gift of the Basque country

The painting's symbolism has been heightened by the fact that, although it portrays one of the key incidents in modern Basque history, it has never actually been displayed in the Basque country.

Picasso painted it in Paris, where he was living at the time, producing initial sketches on May 1, 1937, and, despite its huge size (349.3 cms by 776.6 cms), completing the final canvas by June 4.

It was first displayed in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair of 1937, where it attracted huge attention, and was subsequently lodged with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where Picasso insisted it remain until the fall of Franco's regime.

It was finally returned to Spain in September 1981 (Franco had died in 1975). Rather than going to the Basque country, however, it was placed first in the Prado Museum in Madrid, and then Madrid's La Reina Sofia museum.

"Picasso gave the painting to the whole Spanish people and not just the Basques," says Picasso expert Elizabeth Cowling, of the University of Edinburgh. "It's not something he thought of as a particularly sectarian work of art.

"Although it relates to a specific event it was for him a painting about the Spanish civil war in general."

What an idiot this Elizabeth Cowling is, the Basques are not Spaniards, what does she mean the whole Spanish people, is she Scottish or English?. And judging from the other stuff she says one can tell immediately that she is in the payroll of some former Francoist junta member from Madrid.

Despite this, the Basques have always regarded the work as a part of their own heritage, and have campaigned ceaselessly to have it returned to northern Spain.

"The painting is a gift of the Basque country to the world," says Vidarte, whose request for the work to be loaned to the Guggenheim for its opening in 1997 was rejected. "It would be a very historical moment for the painting to come back to the Basque country, to its place of origin."

The fact that it remains in Madrid is seen by many Basques as a further example of Spanish repression, and the issue of its return has thus become linked with the wider issue of Basque independence.

"The painting has become deeply imbued with the idea of Basque separatism," says Cowling.

I rest my case about this Cowling character, she is just plain biased against the Basque people.

Whether it will ever be displayed in the Basque country, if only on temporary loan, is uncertain.

"We will request it again," says Vidarte, "Although at the moment, because of the political climate, it is not the best of times.

"We hope they will let us have it eventually, though. It would be a nice gesture, and would make the Basque people very happy."

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