"

According to Simon Schama's book The Power of Art, Guernica was painted in response to an article that Picaso saw in an French newspaper. The first line suggests that he was already working on the project when the bombs fell. He had agreed to do 'a politically minded painting' for a 1937 Paris Fair, but he had not decided what he was going to do until after the events in Geurnica unfolded. It was a front page photograph of the inferno that inspired the work.

 

""Quite possibly apocryphal""
I cut this from the article.

A story, quite possibly apocryphal, circulates about Guernica. During World War II, a German officer sees a copy of the painting for the first time, in the presence of Picasso.  In a wondering tone he asks Picasso ""Did you do this?"" and Picasso replies: ""No, you did.""

If it is ""quite possibly apocryphal"" and we have no attribution or citation, it does not belong in the article.   | Talk 02:33, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)
Except that this is extremely widely believed and noted.  I recall hearing the equivalent when I was at the Prado. -  02:40, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)
Then someone should be able to find a citation at least of the anecdote being told. (& was Guernica ever in the Prado? In the early 80s it was in an annex to the Prado and then was moved to the Reina Sofia, no?)   | Talk 07:32, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)
Duh, yeah that is what I meant to say. It has been 4 years since I was there.  Yes, I would think someone could find a source for that being a common anecdote. -  13:32, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

The most specific version I could find as that Picasso is supposed to have said this in 1937, replying to German ambassador Otto Abetz, as he was visiting Picasso's studio. Then there are versions that have Picasso handing out postcards (sometimes autographed, even) to Germans while making this quip, but the most popular is probably the one that uses an anonymous German officer bringing/seeing a postcard/photograph. None of these sites mention sources, of course, but this one has an interesting addition:
Picasso himself probably had contributed to Barr's and others' perception of him having behaved rather boldly throughout the war when, immediately following the liberation, he told an American correspondent for Newsweek magazine that on the day when a German army officer had recognized a sketch of Guernica pinned to the wall of his studio and had asked him, ""Did you do that?,"" Picasso coldly had replied, ""No, you did."" 
Now the tale originates with Picasso himself and is told to Newsweek, which makes this version much more credible than the others, since it's hard to see how a response to Abetz or a group of officers would not be better documented, while it's equally hard to see how a reply to a single anonymous German officer could be known at all. Unfortunately, no other site corroborates the Newsweek detail. I've sent a mail to the Newsweek editors and I'll keep you posted. If someone could check out some Picasso biographies to check whether they mention the anecdote (and what source they give, if any), that would be great.  13:14, 2005 Apr 25 (UTC)
 We can certainly cite the fact that Picasso himself told a (possibly apocryphal) story. It makes the line his, even if it's not clear he really said it in the claimed circumstances.   | Talk 16:05, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)
 Yes, if Picasso really told it. So far, no sources are backing up that website (or even just repeating that version), so I'm not too keen on it. Otherwise the whole thing is just as apocryphal as before.  · Talk 16:46, 2005 Apr 26 (UTC)
 If anyone is up for some library work: old Newsweeks are pretty easy to find.   | Talk 06:31, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

 Nudity? 

I reverted this from Category:Paintings containing nudity to Category:Paintings. Clearly, the fact that one naked female human breast is visible in the painting is a very minor fact about the painting; no one by a very weird obsessive would look for it there. It is primarily a political work about war. I could make a case that it is a perfect illustration that nakedness is not always nudity, but I think it suffices to say