donforrester1947 posted: " The conflict (War) in the Middle East continues to tug at my heartstrings. It is strange how something taking place 7,000 miles away can leave a sick sensation in the pit of your stomach. On October 7, 2023, the surprising attack on Israel b" Carpe Diem
The conflict (War) in the Middle East continues to tug at my heartstrings. It is strange how something taking place 7,000 miles away can leave a sick sensation in the pit of your stomach.
On October 7, 2023, the surprising attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas resulted in the death of more than 1,300 innocent Israelis. Reportedly of those killed, hundreds – hundreds were young people attending a music festival for peace. They were gunned down as they ran for their lives.
The complexity of war escapes me, but what I do know is that the price of admission is paid by those living in the area who have no control over the circumstances in which they find themselves. They have no voice in the terror and carnage in which they find themselves and their children.
Most of us are impotent to take any kind of stand or orchestrate a notable impression that the destruction and loss of lives of innocent people is an egregious abuse. Perhaps, Pablo Picasso, the Spanish-born artist who is credited with modern art, leads the way in making such a statement.
He put in art form what cannot be expressed in words. On April 26, 1937, the unsuspecting town of Guernica in northern Spain was obliterated by the German Luftwaffe. The relentless bombing and machine-gunning of businesses, homes, and villagers effectively decimated the village in three and a half hours.
When the bombing stopped and the machine guns were silenced, there was nothing left of what once had been. Pablo Picasso, a Spanish expatriate living in Paris, responded to the devastation by creating a canvas without color that became his most well-known painting.
The painting depicts physical agony and anguish. Without the ability to comprehend all that is displayed, I found this description through a Google search entitled "A Picture of Human Tragedy":
"Guernica is painted in oil and in monochrome colors of black, grey, and white, a feature that further emphasizes the weight of the depicted event. The picture is full of symbols and its overall theme is one of suffering. The piece portrays a frenzied tangle of six human figures (four women, a man, and a child), a horse, and a bull."
"On the far left of the Guernica painting, one woman wails towards the sky while cradling a lifeless child in her arms; another roar, her arms shooting upward as she's consumed in flames; another emerges from an open window, wielding a torch and breathing hope into the piece as if she's telling that all is not lost."
I find it interesting that Pablo Picasso was a child prodigy. His father was a painter and a professor of art and was impressed by his son's drawing from an early age. His mother stated at one time that his first words were to ask for a pencil.
The thing I find most impressive is the passion Picasso had for expressing outrage over injustice. What a different world ours would be if we all were so minded.
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