Gallery Talk: Why Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and Questions of War Matter Today

Harvard professor Suzanne Preston Blier will discuss Pablo Picasso’s engagement with warfare and revolution, as she examines works on display in the installation Picasso: War, Combat, and Revolution (University Teaching Gallery, January 20–May 5, 2024). The installation complements Blier’s course on Worlds Fairs.

Picasso’s painting Guernica, commissioned by the Spanish government for the 1937 Paris World’s Fair, addresses the devastating Fascist-era aerial bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on April 26, 1937. More broadly, the painting confronts the horrors of war. The works on view explore many of Guernica’s core themes—imagery of death, struggles of good and evil, political and artistic revolution, and issues of desire and capture—which remain relevant today as war, violence, and fascism engulf key parts of the world.

Led by:

Suzanne Preston Blier, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Please meet in the Calderwood Courtyard, in front of the digital screens between the shop and the admissions desk.

The Harvard Art Museums are now offering free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

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