Picasso's reaction to the Second World War

This collection of works gauges Picasso’s reaction to events surrounding WWII. Even without securing the loan of the elusive Guernica, the terrifying studies for the massive canvas that have been released by the Reina Sofía in Madrid go along way to elucidating the terrors of the Spanish Civil War. Brutish portraits, distorted bodies and grim sketches of skulls and sheeps’ heads characterise this period of his work and the accompanying catalogue links these images to the horrific events that constituted the unrest of pre-war Europe. The exhibition is scheduled to visit the Bilbao branch of the Guggenheim Museum some time after New York, which will may once again inflame the Basque separatists, who have lobbied long and hard for the return of Picasso’s Guernica.