Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Shortly after dawn on April 8, a white dove took flight from the courtyard of the Palacio de Buenavista to draw symbolic attention to the wars that are still causing the loss of human life and forced migrations around the world.

Throughout his lifetime, Pablo Picasso witnessed some of the bloodiest events in history: the First and Second World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The cruel barbarism of those conflicts was captured in some of the artist’s most significant works, such as his series of drawings on the First World War; the painting Massacre in Korea, which will be included in an exhibition at the Museo Picasso Málaga in the autumn; and one of his most emblematic paintings known around the world: Guernica.

Picasso helped to make the dove a universal symbol of peace based on his conviction of art’s power to raise the world’s awareness of the injustices caused by war.