Blue dove of peace

Pablo Picasso for a long time tried to stay away from politics. It was as if the First World War passed by him, the artist escaped conscription and, unlike many of his colleagues, lived a fairly calm life in the war years. Everything changed with the outbreak of the civil war in his native Spain. Unable to somehow influence the situation, Picasso, as usual, found solace in painting. And he created one of the most powerful anti-war works in history - a large-scale canvas "Guernica"(1937).

Unexpectedly for everyone, and even for himself, Picasso became a symbol of the struggle of intellectuals and artists against fascism. At the end of World War II, he joined the Communist Party and for several years participated in World Peace Congresses. In 1949, for the poster of the Paris Congress, Picasso created the first "Dove of peace". The congress opened on April 20, and on the eve of the beloved artist Francoise Zhilo gave birth to a daughter, who was called Paloma (translated from Spanish Paloma - "pigeon").

In addition to social significance, the image of the dove was deeply personal for Picasso. The artist's father was an avid lover of these birds and taught little Pablo to draw them. The first image of a dove, created by Picasso for the Paris Congress, was a very realistic lithography. Later that year, the artist again embodied this image - this time in the form of a simple graphic drawing, which became even more popular and replicated. Later, in the 1950s and 60s, Picasso created many images of pigeons, in particular, a series of Cannes landscapes framed by a railing of a balcony with birds sitting on them (1, 2, 3).

Author: Evgenia Sidelnikova