The Power of Art: Picasso

"Or is it that when the bombs are dropping we find out what art is really for?" Simon Schama - The Power of Art

Many will remember in February 2003 the covering up of a tapestry reproduction of Pablo Picasso's 1937 work Guernica in the UN foyer:

Just prior to when Secretary of State Collin Powell delivered a speech to the Security Counsel, where he beseeched the U.N. that war with Iraq was a necessary international action, U.N. officials covered the Guernica mural with a curtain.

The echo back through the decades to the atrocity which inspired Picasso to paint the wall size piece is clear. The killing continues in Iraq today.

Tonight, for our Swedish readers, the British art critic and academic Simon Schama will be dissecting the life of Picasso on SVT 1 at 22:50. I am three quarters of the way through Anne Friedman,s The Virtual Window, which also pays homage to the visual exploration of Picasso. If it weren't for cubism the world would look different today. See why on SVT 1 tonight.