Okay class, today I am going to tell you about one of Picasso's greatest masterpieces, Guernica. As you know, Guernica is also the name of a Basque town. In order to understand this picture, we need to go over some of the historical background of this town. The Basque town is a city located in northern Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, the German air force bombed the city. It was a massive aerial bombardment of a civilian population. It happened since the Nazis were helping Spain's dictator Francisco Franco. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the raid. It shocked the world. And this prompted Picasso to begin painting. He completed it in less than two months and hung it in the Spanish pavilion at the Paris International Exposition of 1937. The painting became a timely and predictive vision of the Second World War. There is a complexity of symbolism in the painting. It does not portray the event directly. Instead, Picasso used imagery such as suffering people, animals, and buildings wrenched by the violence. It certainly shows the chaos of carpet bombing. We can feel the inhumanity, brutality, and hopelessness of war from it. Picasso really expressed his outrage very well with this monumental painting. People say Guernica is the last great historical painting. It is now recognized as an international icon for peace. You can also see a tapestry copy of it displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City.