Pablo Picasso's, Guernica
and El Lissitzky’s, Beat the Whites with
the Red Wedge share many similarities. Both artworks were born as the
artist’s response to civil war in their country of origin. Each carried strong
political messages in relation to these wars to the masses. They became
revolutionary to the Cubist Movement and Russian Constructivism, as well as art
in the 20th Century as a whole. It’s through these artworks that
both artists endeavored to achieve their political agendas and personal utopias.
The semiotic visual language intrinsic in these pieces is one of the main
vehicles in a archiving this. By comparing and contrasting the semiotic visual
language, we can come to understand the extent to which it succeeds in
achieving the artist’s political agendas in relation to the modernist theme:
The Search for Utopia.
Volumes have been written on Picasso's Guernica, a testament to the strength of its semiotic visual
language and the power it communicates. Guernica
was Picasso's response to the horrific bombing of the Spanish civilian city by
the same name. The work was produced for the Spanish pavilion of the 1937 Paris
World Fair after which it was exhibited worldwide. The mural soon became a
well-known anti-war banner and brought the Spanish civil war to the world’s
attention. Picasso has never fully disclosed the semiotic meaning of much of Guernica’s imagery, leaving
interpretation up to the viewer.
The grayscale oil painting features eight figures. All are abstracted
in Picasso’s cubist style. The eight
subjects are contained in an interior space. Geometric shapes come into play in
the works composition and are featured mostly in the background. The most
prominent of which is the large pyramid structure that the subjects are loosely
arranged into.
Every aspect of this work is bursting with semiotic visual language
and it’s impossible to come to an absolute conclusion on what any one symbol
denotes. An example of this is the much-disputed interpretation of the house
and the bull. Both are repeated motifs in Picasso’s work and in Spanish
culture. In many of Picasso’s works he used these animals to denote the Spanish
people, such as in his previous works The
Dream and Lie of Franco. There are several interpretations for these
figures. Picasso himself expressed the open-ended nature of Guernica’s semiotic meanings.
“ If you
give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is
not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I
obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously.”[2]
The expressionistic qualities of these figures, emphasized by the
abstract nature of the work, heighten the strong emotions. Another aspect of
the work that contributes to its emotional impact is the grayscale colour
scheme. The tonal contrast in the work is vast. The dark shadows of the
background draw the focal point to the lighter figures. The lightest parts of
the work are always the figures faces, drawing the viewer into their
traumatized expressions. Newsprint is featured in parts of the work,
complementing the grayscale. The inclusion of this medium is suggestive of the
source of Picasso’s knowledge of the Guernica tragedy, newspaper articles.
The composition of this work is particularly intriguing, especially
when one compares it to the work of Lissitzky. Strong geographical shapes are used
throughout the work. They’re most likely a result of the cubist style. The
background is constructed from angular shapes such as triangles and rectangles
while the more organic lines are reserved for the subjects, again drawing the
focal point to them. Within Guernica
there are many hidden shapes. One in particular is the pyramid. Composed by the
positioning of the horse, knelling women and dismembered swordsmen the pyramid
provides deep semiotic visual language that could offer a variety of meanings.
“Vertical
elongation [of a triangle] creates a more pronounced distinction between top
and bottom, and hence a bias towards hierarchy, and towards ‘opposition’.”[3]
Picasso’s intention in the inclusion of the pyramid could have been
to signify the political hierarchy and dictatorship that existed in Spain at
the time. When Guernica was first
exhibited at the world fair it was accompanied by Picasso’s The Dream and Lie of Franco. These
etchings illustrated Picasso’s hatred for the Spanish dictator, Franco. They
were sold to raise funds for the Spanish Republican Government. Produced
shortly before the Guernica tragedy, they were the first of Picasso’s works to
carry a political agenda.
It’s clear that Picasso intended to send a message with this work.
Picasso’s utopia was a world without war. By depicting the dystopic reality of
human violence in such a graphic and emotional way, he shocked his audience and
encouraged a change in them. Guernica’s
success and notoriety as an anti-war banner is a testament to the strength of
its semiotic visual language in communicating Picasso’s political agenda.
Picasso’s approach in this work was to leave interpretation completely open
ended, inviting the viewer to become engrossed in the work and derive there own
understanding governed by their moral compass. This is completely contradictory
to Lissitzky’s approach in his politically saturated work Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge.
Beat the Whites
with the Red Wedge is a Soviet propaganda poster designed by El Lissitzky to support
the Bolshevik Red Army in there campaign to defeat the
White Movement during the Russian Civil war. This artwork belongs to the
Russian Constructivism movement, a movement that centred on using art for
political purposes. Guernica shares its use of strong geographic shapes,
however there’s one key difference in the two works. While Picasso left Guernica completely up to the audience’s
interpretation, Lissitzky sends a blunt and definite meaning in his use of
semiotic visual language.
The works composition consists of two key shapes, the
red wedge and the white circle. The red wedge perorates the white circle though
a gap that’s created by a diagonal line that splits the work into two sides, one
white and one dark. Other smaller geographical shapes float around the two
featured ones. Admits these are two Russian statements; ‘Klinom Krasnim’,
meaning ‘With Red Wedge’ and ‘Bey Belych’, ‘Beat Whites’.
The colours of this work are of the upmost importance. The red
wedge clearly denotes the Red Army. The white circle indicates the anti
revolutionary forces of the White Movement. Lissitzky chose a monochromatic
colour scheme to make that association as obvious as possible. The repetition
of the text as the title of the work makes Lissitzky’s message all the more
present in the audiences mind. Lissitzky’s choice of tonal variation implies
his political view. He positions the red wedge on the light side of the work,
the white circle on the dark, symbolic of right and wrong.
Lissitzky’s compositional choice of shapes is very intentional in
its use of semiotic visual language.
“Triangles are
‘a symbol of generative power’ and represent ‘action, conflict, tension.”
“Circles and
curved forms generally are the elements we associate with an organic and
natural order.” [5]
It’s no coincidence that Lissitzky depicts the force he associates
himself with as the strong, powerful, conflict filled shape. The circle
provides juxtaposition for the triangle. Comparatively the organic natural
shape seems week when being attract by the aggressive triangle. Lissitzky
described the contrast himself.
“No one is
going to confuse… a circle with a triangle… the intention is to create a system
of universal validity”[6]
The strong use of semiotic visual language with a definitive answer
is essential in Lissitzky’s effort to convey his political agenda. His utopia
is a revolutionized Russia where the Red Army has succeeded in their campaign. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge is a
pro war propaganda poster. The intended way the viewer interacts with this work
completely opposes the viewing experience of Guernica. Although this fact widely divides the works, they share
the principal that for their political message to be successful, it must be
seen by a wide audience.
“Over three thousand posters were produced to
carry the new political and social idealology to the far reaches of the Soviet
Union, and astonishing feat in a country where mass communication had
previously been unknown.”[7]
Lissitzky’s modernist work never received the critical acclaim or
the widespread popularity of Guernica,
however that does not mean it was any less successful in achieving is political
agenda. Lissitzky’s intention in creating this work was not to revolutionize
the world. His search for utopia was limited to his country. Picasso’s approach
was to revolutionize the world and Spain as a result. Being an anti-war
message, his utopia could only be achieved though a world perspective.
Although these artworks share many similarities, they send very
different messages. Guernica’s open-ended
approach to semiotic analysis allows the viewer to derive there own
understanding based on their moral compass. Lissitzky’s Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge presents the audience with a
series of signs and symbols that have a definitive interpretation. The semiotic
visual language is used to make the message as pointed as possible. Lissitzky’s
posters were widely known in Russia during the civil war. It carried Lissitzky’s
utopic view far and wide and in relation to the time and place was very
successful in achieving his political agenda. With Guernica’s widespread critical acclaim and international tour, as
well as its subsequent status as an anti-war banner it continues to convey
Picasso’s idea of a utopic world, free of war and human violence. It brought
the Spanish civil war to the world’s attention and its success in achieving
Picasso’s political agenda is undisputable.
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[1] Guernica – Book Review, n.d., image, viewed 24 May 2012, <http://www.caribousmom.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/guernicamural.jpg>.
[4] Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, n.d., image, viewed 24th May 2012,
<http://pretendinglifeislikeasong.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/red-wedge.jpg>.
[6] Fletcher, VJ 1983, Dreams and nightmares : utopian visions in modern
art, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C .