Picasso

In this Power of Art episode, historian Simon Schama discovers what motivated Pablo Picasso to depict the full-on horror of war at Guernica.

In 1937, the defenseless Basque town was bombed by Nazi air forces during the Spanish Civil War. There Schama reveals why Málaga-born Picasso, whose bohemian paintings had been void of contemporary political context to that point, came to create this vision of atrocity in what is one of his best-known works.

Drawing inspiration from Goya, this grim black-and-white oil painting now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. Physically larger than a movie screen, Simon contends its size magnifies Picasso's anti-war message and helps connect us with our worst nightmares.