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“Art [need not] be beautiful to look at…. works of art have often depicted people, places, things and ideas that are not conventionally seen to be attractive or beautiful… [the] subject, color, suggestive shape, odor, or message [can be] intentionally disturbing, assaulting, terrifying, blasphemous, uneasy, ordinary, or just not beautiful-looking or attractive by conventional standards. “ — Appreciation of Art

A VERY DISTURBING PAINTING of Pablo Picasso, probably the most influential artist of the 20th century, is a mural called Guernica:

GUERNICA was painted in response to the deaths of thousands of people during a massive air raid of the Spanish city Guernica by Nazi planes in 1937. The painting became one of modern art’s most powerful antiwar statements, against the “monstrosities brought about by man’s destructive war machines”.

As Raluca Preotu put it, “One such monstrosity is infanticide. To the left of the painting, we see a mother holding a dead child, her face turned upward in a scream. Her tongue is cone-shaped and sharp, accentuating her pain.”

Some critics say that Guernica could have been drawn by a child. Some say they can find secret images hidden in various parts of the painting – such as the hats of Harlequin (an underworld character and a master of disguise), a face, a skull, a bull’s head.

i wonder whether Picasso could have been inspired by the Chinese version of Hades. The strange bull’s head and weird horse’s face sure remind me of 牛头马面!

(Imported from a forum, and edited.)