Goshka Macuga

History as art at the Whitechapel Gallery

Review by Jolyon Gumbrell
The study of a work of art can be used as a method of understanding the historical period in which it was created. Not only can a painting be appreciated for its beauty or its message, but if we know the date of its creation, for whom it was created and why it was created, then we learn something about the politics and society behind its inception. For example we can learn much about the court of King Henry VIII of England by studying the paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger.

Goshka Macuga turns this process completely around, where a piece of artwork on display is actually formed by items associated with a historical period. For example a museum display cabinet containing items from the 1930’s is in itself a piece of artwork in an exhibition. The separate items in the cabinet are equivalent to the different colours and tones in a painting.

In an inaugural exhibition entitled ‘The Nature of the Beast’ Macuga has chosen the theme of Picasso’s Guernica painting and the story behind it to form a work of art. The original Guernica painting was briefly exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1939, at the time intended to bring public awareness to the plight of Republicans who were fighting Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Today’s exhibition features a reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica in the form of a tapestry along with artifacts and documents relating to the original painting, the reproduction, the United Nations Security Council, and the War in Iraq. The narrative of the exhibition links all of these things together in one story, that forms a work of art itself.

Pablo Picasso’s Guernica was painted for the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exhibition held at Paris in 1937. Picasso had been commissioned to paint a work of art for the exhibition in support of the Spanish Republican government, which at the time was fighting for its survival against Franco’s Nationalists. By coincidence the tragic event of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica, happened shortly before Picasso was to start work on his commission. The atrocity committed against the civilian population of Guernica - in which more than 1,650 men, women and children were killed during an air raid, by German bombers in support of Franco - would provide the anti-war and anti-fascist theme for Picasso’s painting.

Picasso’s Guernica was exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery from 31st December 1938 until 14th January 1939. The exhibition had been organized by the Stepney Trade Union Council with the purpose of giving material support to the refugees of the civil war - with pairs of leather boots or financial donations - and to enlist volunteers who were prepared to go out to Spain and fight for the Republican cause.

Goshka Macuga’s exhibition re-creates the memory of the 1938-1939 exhibition through the artifacts and documents on display. It was not possible for Picasso’s original Guernica painting to be put on display again at the Whitechapel Gallery, as it is today one of the main attractions at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.

The tapestry reproduction of Picasso’s painting, itself forms part of the sequel to the anti-war narrative of Guernica. The tapestry was commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller in 1955 and woven by Madame J. de la Baume Dürrbach at the Dürrbach atelier in Paris with the approval of Pablo Picasso. In 1985 Mrs Rockefeller allowed the tapestry to be put on display outside of the Security Council Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, in memory of her husband and as a deterrent to war.

The narrative of Macuga’s work of art at the Whitechapel Gallery brings the viewer to recent historical events. Some of the photographs and documents in the display case tell of how the tapestry - which used to hang outside of the Security Council Chamber - was covered with a blue curtain on 5th February 2003. That was at the place and on the day, when the then US Secretary of State Collin Powell made a presentation before the world’s media that Saddam Hussein supposedly had weapons on mass destruction. The presentation made the case for war against Iraq. Somebody covered the tapestry because its anti-war message was too much of a condradiction of the other message delivered by Colin Powell that day. Today the tapestry forms the focal point of the exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

The Nature of the Beast exhibition by Goshka Macuga is being held at the Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX, from 5th April 2009 to 18th April 2010. For more information on this exhibition and others at the Whitechapel Gallery visit www.whitechapelgallery.org .