Picasso's Protest: Massacre in Korea

*Massacre en Corée* (Massacre in Korea) is Picasso's painting about the Korean War. After the Second World War, once Paris was fully liberated, Picasso received a steady stream of visits from friends and admirers, all delighted to find him alive. He went on to cement his place as a giant of French painting and even became a symbol of French art and of liberation. War and peace remained recurring subjects in his work, and this painting is one of them.

The setting is the massacre said to have taken place in Sinchon, Hwanghae Province, in 1950, a scene of the horrors of the Korean War. On the left, a woman weeps, holding her child. Her eyes are closed in resignation. One child runs off in fright, while others, not grasping what is happening, play with the soil. On the right, soldiers stand like robots, aiming their guns at naked people. Who the soldiers are is never made clear; they could be American or North Korean. Because Picasso had joined the Communist Party, many argue that he was depicting a massacre committed by US forces, but it is hard to say for certain. The point is probably not who did the killing. It is more likely that, in the same spirit as *Guernica*, he wanted to show the cruelty of war: great powers turning a small country like Korea into a battlefield and slaughtering innocent victims. Along with *Death's Head* and *Guernica*, this painting shows how much Picasso wanted to speak about war through his art.

We said earlier that Picasso's fame kept the Nazis from arresting him lightly. One of his closest friends was not so lucky. Max Jacob, a friend and colleague from Picasso's youth, was later arrested by the Gestapo and died in a prison camp. Picasso must have been heartbroken by the news, and it may be one reason he made even more works about war and peace after the war.

Let's close with words Picasso left behind: "An artist is a political being, yet also one who can feel for terrible situations, for all the hardships and joys of the world, and who sometimes builds a world in his own way. That being so, how could an artist be indifferent to other people, and with what nerve could he be indifferent to the world, unlike everyone else? No. Painting is never done to decorate an apartment. Painting is a weapon of attack and a weapon of defense against the enemy."