Section One: Battlefield

                                 GUERNİCA BY PABLO PİCASSO

On an ordinary day in a small Spanish town, everything seems colorful and alive. Suddenly, darkness falls as ash and debris fill the air; people scream in terror. Amidst the chaos, one sees their injured brother lying in the field next to the burning wheat they had planned to harvest that summer. Feeling helpless, they look to the sky, praying for the nightmare to end.

Picasso captures these harrowing scenes in his black-and-white painting, Guernica. The absence of color symbolizes the people's loss and the artist's despair for humanity. The painting organizes everything with colors instead of lines, creating a sense of restless movement. This technique evokes feelings of unease and discomfort in the viewer.

The figures in Guernica are intentionally distorted, with elongated limbs and twisted bodies. Picasso uses the ugliness of scars and disfigurement to captivate viewers and convey the victims' pain and despair. The horse, representing freedom and nobility, gazes in agony at the carnage, while the bull, a symbol of brutality, appears distressed. Abstraction enables Picasso to translate intricate ideas into symbolic forms, making the suffering of the subjects visible and poignant.

Picasso's aggressive brushstrokes create a textured, scarred surface, emphasizing the violence depicted. This rough texture enhances the emotional impact, inviting viewers to understand the victims' pain.

At the top of the painting, a lamp symbolizes hope and the desire for salvation. A man on the right, seemingly detached from reality, gazes at the light while others witness the massacre. The lamp illuminates the suffering of each character in the painting, providing a glimmer of hope amidst the chaos.

Guernica is a powerful anti-war artwork of the twentieth century. Picasso uses his own anguish to represent the 1,600 lives lost on that fateful day. The painting serves as a reminder of the brutal attack and the capacity of art to advocate for peace. In the face of violence, the creation of art remains an unstoppable force for change, reminding us that every piece of this earth can be a tool to inspire transformation.

                                        Section Two: Inferno

                           GASSED BY JOHN SİNGER SARGENT

One day, John Singer Sargent was spending his time in a British soldiers' camp as part of a mission to capture heroic scenes of the war. He observed a line of soldiers coming from each road with their eyes covered with white cloth across their eyes, some of them destined to be blind forever. He saw the falling soldiers behind a group of men sharing one common thing: a moral belief that makes one blind.

Sargent's painting depicts a scene from a horrendous mustard gas attack, a new weapon of the First World War. The remnants of the yellow smoke and the redness in the sky remind us of the nature of mustard gas. The calmness in the background, with a group of men playing a match in the afternoon sun, serves as an element to reveal the ordinary, horrifying aspects of war. Most importantly, this was a real scene that the artist himself witnessed, and nobody can be more upset by blindness than an artist who lives his life by seeing and picturing people's lives. The figures are human-sized, forcing viewers to engage with every element in the painting. One can feel the pain in their eyes, the shaking hand on their neck holding tight, and even the uncertainty and fear of the soldier at the front of the line, waiting for the command to finish his step.

The white cloth is an element for a biblical metaphor, "the blind leading the blind." It serves as a reminder of the propaganda that sends young people into the embrace of death. This art piece tells the story of millions of soldiers from every nation. The calmness of the field and the falling soldiers who appear to be in a deep sleep is a shout to reveal how hard they try to cling to normality. But how can one be normal when this is their reality?

 Sargent's Gassed not only reflects society's changing attitude towards war but also conveys his own grief and despair following the death of his niece, with whom he had a special bond. This personal loss emphasizes the painting's depiction of the tragic consequences of war experienced by countless families. Sargent was one of the few artists courageous enough to face potential shame from society for his unwavering portrayal of the war's horrors. Viewers of this art piece may experience a sense of mourning akin to attending a funeral, evoking feelings of desperation and the overwhelming weight of grief – a feeling that makes you want to hold your chest while breathing. 

                                      Section Three: Homefront

        THE VETERAN İN A NEW FİELD BY WİNSLOW HOMER

The war is over. There is no meaning in holding a bloody gun anymore. Many men of the same age have been killed, but no one could explain the reason - it was just one order, and it took seconds to take another man's life. Now it's time to return to family and blood. A different world awaits on the horizon, where everything has changed. Friends are gone, and all that remains is a tattered uniform and a feeling called "hope."

Winslow Homer's iconic painting of a lone farmer reaping a vast field of wheat emanates a sense of calmness in disguise. Homer's composition includes just a few elements: wheat, sky, and farmer. One can see the blue sky, feel the breeze on a cotton shirt, and witness a sun that provides company. Imagine the sound of tall wheat swaying back and forth, offering shade from the burning sun.

The artist points out the time of the painting with the man's Union Army uniform and canteen. Painted in the summer of 1865, not long after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, The Veteran in a New Field is a deeply symbolic painting - a statement that shows what has been lost. The veteran's new calm work-field reminds us of his old field, the battlefield.

Homer's veteran handles a single-bladed scythe, which was already out of date by 1865. The artist's initial idea was to picture a cradled scythe (its outline is faintly visible on the left side of the canvas), but Homer decided to replace it with a more archaic tool. This gave the image of a farmer in his field a disguised reference to the work of the Grim Reaper, the old-age personification of death.

The unusually tall wheat, ready for harvest, is reminiscent of the man's previous battlefield. Each wheat plant reminds us of fallen soldiers, the man's old friends, and the unspeakable, horrifying deaths of the many people he knew. The art piece captures a man surrounded by his own grief and sorrow.

The painting tells of people's hopes for a productive, peaceful society after the devastation of the American Civil War, referring to a passage from Isaiah 2:4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

                                        Section Four: The Killers

                 THE THİRD OF MAY 1808 BY FRANCİSCO GOYA

On the third of May 1808, there is a palpable sense of desperation in every household. A series of men are taken from their homes and led to the field. One witnesses the unspeakable as they look at their friends lying on the ground, giving their last breath to the world. Fear surrounds you as you acknowledge that there may be no tomorrow. The faces of the enemies are obscured by the glowing light, which serves as the last sight for many. You raise your arm one last time, not to beg, but to show that you are a fighter until your final breath.

Goya's painting tells us the sad story of how humans can be inhuman to each other. The piece depicts a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty in human morals, describing the pain caused by ignorance that manifests as the executioner. It is easy to imagine this contrast between the victims and the murderers playing out in every horrifying massacre across the world.

The extreme contrast between light and dark in the painting represents the relationship between life and death. The hurried brushstrokes mirror the haste of the execution, making the picture seem like a photograph capturing the exact moment. The man in the white shirt is central to understanding the scene, as he kneels in a pool of blood with his hands stretched above him. The white strokes on his shirt appear disoriented and quick, as if it was the moment before he raised his hands towards the executioners. His stance resembles the crucifixion of Christ, with the man's right hand displaying a scar of stigmata, as if, like Christ on the cross, he is saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Goya's The Third of May 1808 exposes the ugly reality of war, where there is no redemption or heroism. War is depicted as a bloody ordeal that kills or transforms men into machines. In the field, there are no real winners, and no religion or regime can justify the atrocities committed during war.

Art serves as a powerful way to document human history because it captures the true essence of the human spirit, unfiltered and untainted by external forces. As humans, it is difficult to comprehend our thoughts unless we create something tangible from them. In many wars, art has been a means of rebellion – a way to see through the eyes of those who have lost their loved ones, who have become inhuman, and who have been forced to leave their homes. Art serves as a tool to confront "The Killer," a reference to the war profiteers who benefit from the devastation and brutality faced by countless individuals.

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Mihriban is just a girl hailing from a country you've likely only associated with the city of 'Istanbul.' She passionately believes in the power of writing, seeing it as a meaningful endeavor that holds significance in the grand scheme of things. Her fascination lies in the striking contrast between yellowish tones and dark backgrounds in paintings, a combination that, to her, signifies the order she seeks in life. Mihriban finds solace in watercolor works, drawn to the medium's inherent looseness and the vibrant emotions captured in animal depictions that mirror human experiences. This unique blend of a young girl's fears and dreams of descending like a waterfall in a single moment makes her feel truly alive. It fuels her desire to engage in conversations about matters that may hold importance for someone.

Featured Art:
Claudio Parentela
PAINTING 1532
Mixed media on cardboard, 2024