Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 18:19:09 +0200

From: Sadurni Girona <sgirona@pie.xtec.es>

You asked for ... [In your New Satesman Competition ]

“Criticism of famous works of art by obviously ignorant people who

understand nothing of their subject...”

Dear Ms De Meaner

Here comes my entry:

I've always been fascinated by drawings and cartoon in general.

So when I came to “El Prado”, the other day, and considered in depth

Picasso's Guernica, something tilted in my mind ...

So, there was ,indeed, a missing link between Picasso and poverty that could

easily and definitely explain the strong influence

of his penniless days in Paris on his most famous masterpiece.

Consider this enormous oil and the items that cover the canvas from side

to side.

There is a light bulb that doesn't actually help us much understand the

real meaning of the painting. But every little helps (so says Tesco advertisement !)

More significantly there is a bull, a horse and three people,

all of them contorted in a sort of cubist shape, and two of them showing

wide open mouths and wide open eyes that seem to look at the ceiling as if they were fearing a non-intelligent coalition bombing... If you don't mind such a war reference... Most amazing yet, the third one is gazing the

other two... as a vivid metaphor of life.

No pastel colours in this work of art. Just gray and black and brown or a

pale greyish mixture. Tthe colour of sadness and poverty, isn’t it ? . They all seem to be fool and desperate, they are all crying: We are hungry !

Charles Baudler ( Sani Girona sgirona@pie.xtec.es)