Picasso’s, and Powell’s, Guernica in London

From British daily The Independent:

Picasso‘s ‘Guernica‘ returns to London

By Arifa Akbar

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

REUTERS

A full-size replica of Pablo Picasso‘s anti-war painting, Guernica, was unveiled in London yesterday. The tapestry version on display at the Whitechapel Art Gallery has hung for 24 years just outside the UN Security Council chamber in New York.

Picasso completed his original in 1937 in protest at the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. It was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery two years later.

In the 1950s, the Spanish artist let two Parisian weavers make three exact copies of the picture after realising his original was too fragile to be taken around the world. One copy is now in Japan, another is in France and the third is owned by the Rockefeller family, who loaned it to the UN.

Goshka Macuga, a Polish sculptor is incorporating the textile into an exhibition about the controversy generated by Picasso’s painting – now kept in Madrid – that opens at the Whitechapel on 5 April.

Comments
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This article has a grave mistake

That mistake is also in The Art Newspaper.

[info]ricardoward wrote:
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 at 04:01 pm (UTC)
The bombing of Guernica was executed by the forces opposed to the Republic…The Republic commissioned Picasso to make the painting itself.
Re: This article has a grave mistake
[info]sl1ther wrote:
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 at 04:36 pm (UTC)
Thanks for correcting. I got interested in Guernica when I heard about the US panicking about its presence at the UN while Colin Powell made his case for war with Iraq.

They covered the tapestry up as they were afraid of it.

It’s a shame the article doesn’t mention when the replica will leave the Whitechapel, I will make an effort to go visit.