Sueño y mentira de Franco (The Dream and Lie of Franco) of 1937 exemplifies Picasso’s involvement with political art, a concept not previously explored so explicitly until this point. The 1930s were a critical juncture in Picasso’s career: a time of enormous political upheaval in Europe coincided with a period of great personal artistic experimentation. The artist began working in the studio of Roger Lacourière, an experienced printmaker who introduced Picasso to various techniques that he mastered in rapid succession. Picasso never “learnt” how to print; instead, the artist would continually experiment with different elements, such as aquatint, sugar lift and burin engraving, using them to great effect as demonstrated in this “comic-strip” etching.
Intended to be cut out and used as postcards, Sueño y mentira de Franco exposes the fascist leader General Franco as a grotesque murderer after the bombing of the defenceless Basque town of Guernica. Franco is depicted as a deformed caricature, grinning maniacally as he commits heinous acts of violence such as slaying and consuming the innards of his own horse. We also see him attacking a raging bull, a motif used throughout Picasso’s work that is often self-referential but in this instance extends to symbolise the fight against Franco. The brutal atrocity galvanised Picasso and planted the seeds behind his masterpiece Guernica of 1937, where we can identify the same stylistic components explored in paint.
