Wednesday, 20. July 2022
Guernica: genesis of a masterpiece. The war painted by Picasso and the Neorealists.
Today, Wednesday 20 July 2022, the exhibition “Guernica: genesis of a masterpiece” will be inaugurated. The war painted by Picasso and the Neorealists” at Palazzo Ferretti, in via Nazionale n. 45 in Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany.
This is an exhibition that will offer the opportunity to admire 42 graphics taken from the preparatory drawings made by Pablo Picasso for his famous 1937 painting, entitled “Guernica”, and 17 works, including oils and engravings, created by Neorealist artists, including Renato Guttuso, Antonio and Xavier Bueno, Aligi Sassu and Giuseppe Migneco.
In his work “Guernica”, Picasso managed to immortalize on canvas the massacre and violence of the most remembered episode of the Spanish civil war, with such extraordinary power and effectiveness as to transform the painting into a symbol against the violence of every war and a extraordinary icon of peace.
Before creating the final canvas, Picasso made numerous preparatory drawings and sketches. The graphics taken from these drawings constitute the central nucleus of the exhibition presented by Dalí Universe inside the rooms of the 18th century Palazzo Ferretti, designed and frescoed by the Nuremberg painter and architect, Marco Tuscher.
The preparatory drawings of Picasso’s masterpiece, inspired by the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937, present the key figures of the final composition.
“These preparatory drawings, which today are part of the permanent collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid”, announces Beniamino Levi, President of the Dalí Universe, “are extraordinary drawings that tell the different states of mind through which Picasso passed during his creation of the most visited painting in the world after Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa'”.
In the year 1990, Picasso’s heirs authorized, with an unprecedented decision in the history of art, a limited edition of this incredible work which can be admired at the Palazzo Ferretti. This edition constitutes a fitting tribute to those who work for world peace and brotherhood between nations.
The inauguration of the exhibition has been set for Wednesday 20 July 2022. The exhibition will open to the public on Thursday 21 July 2022.
The exhibition “Guernica: genesis of a masterpiece. The war painted by Picasso and the Neorealists” can be visited until 6 January 2023.