The Madrid-based artist takes hold of Guernica Picasso, a universal symbol against war, to create a unique work that rethinks the conflict in a multisensory experience and a contemporary perspective.
The work of Carlos Blanco Artero is fascinating in its reflection and creative process. It is a perpetual dance between colors, compositions, textures, lines, volumes, and depth. Art, in all its forms and representations, has had a considerable impact on his approach over time, with Pablo Picasso at the forefront. At the age of six, the Madrid-born artist discovered one of Picasso's most famous works, Guernica (1937) , in a museum, and at nine, he organized his first art exhibition at General Motors in Zaragoza. Since then, Carlos Blanco Artero's career has been marked by major inspirations and travels around the world (Paris, New York, Berlin, Austria, Australia, the Canary Islands), which have nourished his style, characterized by abstraction, new figuration, and figurative deconstruction.
Influence of teachers
In his series such as Fiesta , Iptics , Crowds , Meninas and Arabesque , he draws inspiration from artists of different movements and fields: Gustave Courbet ( Le Désespéré ), George Condo ( Rush Hour ), Diego Velázquez ( Les Meninas ), Francis Picabia ( I See Again in Memory My Dear Udnie ) or even Claude Debussy.
Of these tutelary and inspiring figures, the specter of the Cubist maestro remains central to most of his works. With his reinterpretation of Guernica , Carlos Blanco Artero offers a dialogue between past and present, exploring themes of memory, conflict, and collective perception.
From the outset, he planned to reproduce it approximately in the same size and time period. "I wanted to experience the feeling of facing a canvas of similar dimensions ," he explains. Conceived in eleven different tones, from white to black, with effects of focus and blur, his monumental work aims to be "intimate without being obvious," offering a new perspective on Cubism.
Rethinking Guernica
His bold vision is also multidisciplinary, appearing on the Repensar Guernica digital platform of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, which invites the public to an interactive exploration of Picasso's work. Carlos Blanco Artero's canvas transcends its pictorial boundaries to create a multisensory experience, incorporating sound and elements of artistic synesthesia. "I wanted the experience to be not only visual, but for the viewer to be able to feel and hear the chaos and fragility that Guernica represents ," he explains.
In 2025, the work will take up permanent residence in the installations of Saisho, a gallery and art market in the Spanish capital. "What has always interested me in Guernica is its plasticity, its excellent geometric composition, its almost triptych-like conception, the hands and feet, the gestures of pain; it's a heart-rending cry that is accentuated by all the sharp geometric planes and edges; black and white, which, as Picasso said, makes it 'resemble a large engraving' and gives it a dramatic immortality."
This reinterpretation thus continually reaffirms Carlos Blanco Artero's commitment to transforming art into a tool for dialogue and social change.
