Leiden University Student Repository

Regueiro Busto, Carmen (2016)

Picasso's Guernica: Exploration of the Changing Meaning of an Artwork

Master thesis | Arts and Culture (MA)

Picasso’s work Guernica is one the most well known paintings of the twentieth century and probably the most influential icon of Spanish art history.
 As soon as Guernica commenced its public life, being presented in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair in 1937, its progression in meaning of the artwork began. In this thesis I intend to explore how, through different exhibitions and collections from museums and galleries in which it was displayed, Guernica was able to shape, in one or another way, its history as one of the world’s icons of universal modern art. How did the exhibitions in which Guernica took part helped to shape its political meaning? Moreover, I would like to explore how artworks can be shaped by their surroundings.
 Accordingly, I endeavour to examine how the display of Guernica in different surroundings has shaped its meaning since its presentation at Paris World Fair in 1937, with attention being placed on the entire context of each exhibition. Central to...Show morePicasso’s work Guernica is one the most well known paintings of the twentieth century and probably the most influential icon of Spanish art history.
 As soon as Guernica commenced its public life, being presented in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair in 1937, its progression in meaning of the artwork began. In this thesis I intend to explore how, through different exhibitions and collections from museums and galleries in which it was displayed, Guernica was able to shape, in one or another way, its history as one of the world’s icons of universal modern art. How did the exhibitions in which Guernica took part helped to shape its political meaning? Moreover, I would like to explore how artworks can be shaped by their surroundings.
 Accordingly, I endeavour to examine how the display of Guernica in different surroundings has shaped its meaning since its presentation at Paris World Fair in 1937, with attention being placed on the entire context of each exhibition. Central to this thesis is Guernica’s legacy: the meaning which it had in past exhibitions, its meaning in the present and its meaning for contemporary artists. selecting Goshka Macuga’s The Nature of the Beast (2009) as a case study. 
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meaning

exhibition narratives

display

Guernica

Author

Regueiro Busto, Carmen

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Museums and Collections

Supervisors

Keblusek, M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en