Guernica

Beskrivning

Moderna Museet, Stockholm. 1956. (Nationalmusei Nr 237), (Moderna Museets utställningskatalog. Nr 1). (21 x 17 cm), paperback, saddle stitched. 6-page cover, 21-page fold-out on the back, cover motif (unfolded): Picasso’s Guernica. The title and last page are printed in red. Somewhat worn, a small hole at the lower staple.

Director of the exhibition and ed.: B. Wennberg, in collab. with: K. G. Hultén. (Foreword:) Otte Sköld. (Introduction:) Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Stockholm,  52 pages, without pagination, 56 black-and-white illustrations. Text in Swedish and English, partly in French. (Lutz Jahre 5 – 1956).

The Moderna Museet was not opened until one and a half years after this exhibition, on May 9, 1958. The newly founded museum was to be housed as a separate department of the Swedish National Museum in a former naval building on the island of Skeppsholmen. The renovations to the building were in full swing when the special opportunity arose to show Picasso’s Guernica, which was then being exhibited in several European museums, in Stockholm. The first exhibition of the Moderna Museet took place in provisionally prepared rooms – the roof was still unfinished and only covered with a tarpaulin. On this tour, in addition to the much-discussed painting Guernica, 63 preliminary studies and sketches were also on display for the first time in Europe. Picasso had deposited the painting and the works in the Museum of Modern Art in New York shortly after the outbreak of war, with the wish to keep them there until democracy was restored in Spain. The first exhibition stop was Paris, where the work had been commissioned for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition. The historical background of the picture was made clear in the Stockholm catalogue by newspaper clippings reporting on the bombing and destruction of the Basque town of Guernica on April 27, 1937. Films by Buñuel, Franju and Ivens were shown in an accompanying programme. Buñuel was responsible for the film programme in the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition and, together with Picasso, Miró and other artists, signed the manifesto against the German air raids.

Exhibitions: Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, May/Sept. 1955; Munich, Haus der Kunst, 1955; Cologne, Rheinisches Museum, 1955; Hamburg, Kunsthalle, 1955/56; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1956; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1956; Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Oct. 19 – Dec. 2, 1956 (26,000 visitors).