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Writer's pictureMorgan Fagg

Line Up, Line Up, and See the Show

Updated: Sep 16, 2020

Picasso proves popular during this pandemic

As popular as a clown's car, a herd of people lined up for Museo Reina Sofia in the centre of Madrid on Saturday 12th of September to see amongst other works of art, Guernica.


Guernica by Pablo Picasso is an incredible depiction of the destruction of the town of Gernika in the Spanish region of País Vasco.


There is such an irony to me to think that people are lining up during a pandemic to see Pablo Picasso's painting, a priceless painting that is valued at an estimated €750 million.


Surely markings on the ground could help to social distance the gathering crowd but ever eager to open businesses, too often we see crowds closely gathered outside buildings.


From what I learnt, visiting the beautiful town of Gernika, Italian, German and Spanish airforces deliberately targetting the town's market place when they believed it would be the most populated.


Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía opened in the 1990s but the beautiful building was actually Madrid's first general hospital, founded by King Felipe II as San Carlos hospital.


Today as I watch the crowds patiently queueing up at Madrid first general hospital to see Picasso's depiction of cows and horses being blown up in the Basque Country, I can't help but wonder if I am looking at lambs to the slaughter as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to grow in Spain.


As for me, I was enjoying a quiet beer nearby where even the Ali-Hop cow was wearing a mask.


BEASTLY IMAGE: Picasso's Guernica (taken from Wikipedia.org) shows a ghastly scene of humans and animals bombed to bits in the Basque Country. Today you will see cows wearing masks at the entrance to Ali-Hop shops in Spain. Such as the one across from Museo Reina Sofia.


*Guernica in the Basque Country is known locally as Gernika


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