''Massacre in Korea'' (French: ''Massacre en Corée'') is an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painting completed on 18 January 1951 by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. Picasso's third anti-war painting after '' Guernica'' and '' The Charnel House'', ''Massacre'' depicts a scene of a massacre of a group of naked women and children by a firing squad. It has been considered to be a condemnation of American intervention in the Korean War. The painting was exhibited in the Musée Picasso in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Background

''Massacre in Korea'' is the third in a series of anti-war paintings created by Picasso. It was preceded by the monumental '' Guernica'', painted in 1937, and '' The Charnel House'', painted from 1944 to 1945. The title of this painting refers to the outbreak of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, which had started in the previous year, yet the subject matter is ambiguous, as Picasso does not point directly to a period or location within the composition. Picasso was exposed to the effects of war throughout his entire life and this had a direct impact on his artwork. From a young age, he began to include war motifs in his work. When the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

broke out, Picasso was deeply affected by it, which led to his painting of ''Guernica'' in 1937. Although Picasso did not take part in any war or serve as a soldier, he would use his artwork to make political statements. He claimed that his artwork was a "journal" that documented not only his personal life, but also the conflicts of his era.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

marked a period of major upheaval and during this period, Picasso lived in occupied Paris. When France was liberated from the German occupation, he became committed to using his art for political statements. His post-war art therefore displays anti-war images and symbols of peace. Reports of German atrocities in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

are also thought to be the main inspiration behind the unfinished ''

Charnel House A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used more generally as a description of a plac ...

'', though its content was drawn from Picasso's experiences in Spain similar to ''Guernica''.

Description

The painting may depict an event similar to the No Gun Ri Massacre in July 1950, when an undetermined number of South Korean refugees were massacred by U.S. soldiers, or the Sinchon Massacre of the same year, a mass killing carried out in the county of Sinchon,

South Hwanghae Province South Hwanghae Province (Hwanghaenamdo; , lit. "south Yellow Sea province") is a province in western North Korea. The province was formed in 1954 when the former Hwanghae Province was split into North and South Hwanghae. The provincial capital i ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. ''Massacre in Korea'' depicts civilians being killed by anti-communist forces. The art critic Kirsten Hoving Keen says that it is "inspired by reports of American atrocities" in Korea. At by , the work is smaller than his '' Guernica'', to which it bears a conceptual resemblance as well as an expressive vehemence.Boeck & Sabartés, p. 302. Picasso's work is influenced by

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

's painting '' The Third of May 1808'', which shows

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's soldiers executing Spanish civilians under the orders of

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also ; ; ; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French Army officer and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the military titles of Marshal of the ...

.Keen, Kirsten Hoving. "Picasso's Communist Interlude: The Murals of War and Peace". ''The Burlington Magazine'', Vol. 122, No. 928, Special Issue Devoted to Twentieth Century Art, July, 1980. p. 464. It stands in the same iconographic tradition of an earlier work modeled after Goya:

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

's series of five paintings depicting the execution of Emperor Maximilian, completed between 1867 and 1869. As with the ''Third of May'', Picasso's painting is marked by a bifurcated composition, divided into two distinct parts. To the left, a group of naked women and children are seen situated at the foot of a mass grave. A number of heavily armed "knights" stand to the right, also naked, but equipped with "gigantic limbs and hard muscles similar to those of prehistoric giants." The firing squad is rigidly poised as in Goya. In Picasso's representation, however, the group is manifestly helter-skelter – as was often apparent in his portrayals of armored soldiers in drawings and lithographs – which may be taken to indicate an attitude of mockery of the idiocy of war. Their helmets are misshapen, and their weaponry is a mishmash amalgamation of the instruments of aggression from the medieval period to the modern era; not quite guns nor lances, they perhaps most resemble candlesticks. What is more, none of the soldiers have penises. This representational feature is highlighted by the pregnant state of the women on the left side of the panel. Many viewers have interpreted that the soldiers, in their capacity as destroyers of life, have substituted guns for their penises, thereby castrating themselves and depriving the world of the next generation of human life. Along with '' Guernica'' and '' The Charnel House'' (1944–45), this is one of Picasso's works that he composed to depict the politics of his time.

Significance and legacy

''Massacre in Korea'' is often overlooked and overshadowed in cultural consciousness by ''Guernica''. It is more literal in its visual storytelling than the fragmented symbolism of the earlier, more famous work. When the painting was first viewed in 1951, it was not well received. Isabelle Limousin, exhibition curator, explained that the work was dismissed, as "too easy, too readable for contemporaries of the artist", yet she considers it to be "a very strong work". Museu Picasso de Barcelona describes the painting as, "one of Picasso's most important pacifist works in defense of human rights, beyond ideologies and sides." Pierre Daix, an expert on Picasso, opined that the painting has "entered within the great tradition of paintings of cruelty, a 20th century version of the ''Massacre of the Innocents''".

2022 incident

On 9 October 2022, two activists from the environmental pressure group

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...

glued their hands to the painting using superglue while it was on loan to the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

in Melbourne. Their hands were attached to the perspex glazing protecting the painting and removed without damage to the artwork. The activists were arrested but later released without charge.

References

Sources