I am reading Russell Martin's excellent book, Picasso's War. I bought thinking it would be this raucous tale of his life and maybe give a little insight into who he was and why he did what he did with his art. I am surprised that so far (Chapter 3) it has been a historical account of the destruction of the town of Guernica in northern Spain by the Germans at the behest of rebellion leader Generalisimo Franco prior to WW2. It was a bloody massacre of civilians who were completely unarmed, in the middle of the day by the German air force.
I am quite mesmerized by the tale and the insight I am getting to an event that I don't recall ever hearing about in the US historical mainstream. Angie knew the painting was bout a war, but that was about it. It's much more than that though. It's a social commentary by a man who prior to this, stayed out of politics as much as possible. But the massacre that occurred there struck a chord with the artist and this huge work was part of his response.