گاهی، نگاهی

June 2025

In 1937, Pablo Picasso created “Guernica” in response to the devastating bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting’s fractured forms, anguished faces, and screaming horse became an eternal symbol of war’s senseless brutality.
Today, as we witness the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, Picasso’s masterpiece feels painfully relevant. The distorted figures in Guernica- the mother holding her dead child, the wounded horse, the bull representing brutality- mirror the national and emotional sentiments and experiences of Iranians. War’s architects and instigators who brought this to our cities and people have disappeared into safety and sheltered behind innocents who are now paying the price, with their lost lives and livelihoods.
Broken hearts and bones ache and pain the same in Israel and Iran. The scream of frightened children sounds the same in Tehran or Tabriz, or in Tel Aviv and Haifa. Guernica reminds us that behind every war are human hearts that break. The painting’s stark black, white, and gray palette strips away the colors that divide us, revealing only our shared vulnerability and pain. Guernica’s broken forms depict humanity in every conflict and recognize that grief transcends borders and doesn’t know colors.
Today, this masterpiece hangs in Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía, where Picasso insisted it should remain until Spain returned to democracy- a final act of defiance against tyranny and a testament to art’s power to outlast the regimes that try to silence it.

#Guernica #PabloPicasso #Peace #Humanity #Art #Iran #Israel #nowar