Picasso's Guernica is more than a painting - it is a scream on canvas, a political weapon, and a mirror of Spain's fractured soul. This course takes Guernica as the starting point to examine the ties between art and conflict in 20th-century Spain, from the Civil War to the underground resistance under Franco and the radical avant-garde of the late.

Transcending its moment, Guernica has become a universal icon of war's horrors, echoed in Vietnam protests, anti-apartheid murals, and Syrian refugee art. Students will explore how artists from Pollock to Leon Golub and contemporary creators have drawn on its language to confront injustice.

Through museum visits, primary sources, and creative responses, we will study how Spanish artists such as Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Tàpies, and Eduardo Arroyo responded to oppression and exile. The course culminates in a final project reimagining Guernica for a contemporary crisis, bridging history with today's global debates.