피카소와 한국전쟁: <전쟁>과 <평화>를 중심으로

Abstract

After the <Massacre in Korea>, Picasso painted <War> and <Peace> during the critical time of the Korean War. Two huge panel of paintings were to decorate the old Romanesque chapel of the castle in Vallauris. His concept for the decoration of the chapel had focused on the confrontation between the destructive powers of war and the idyllic life under peace. Between April 1952, the date of his first sketch, and September, Picasso had some 280 drawings and studies for the two paintings. He started with the war panel, which features the ruinous foray of a demonic equipage, a rickety chariot pulled by three skeletal horses. The charioteer, the personification of war, is a nude hybrid with a male human body. Slung over his shoulder is a basket filled with human skulls, and his left hand is sowing insects and vermin. In the early 1950s, however, anti-American feelings ran high in Europe, fanned by the Communists' accusation that American forces used bacteriological weapons in the Korean War. Picasso accused the Americans of using bacteriological weapons and denounced them as "the most dangerous enemy of world peace and human justice." The <War> was indeed to create a powerful and comprehensible condemnation not only of war but also of bacteriological warfare. The treatment of this theme was politically explosive at the time, and there could be no doubt that Picasso's condemnation targeted America. The panel <peace>, by contrast, is more elusive. Its whimsical elements allude to the world of fairy tales. Unlike the scene in <Joy of Life> of 1946, the <Peace> has avoided the mythological realm. It avoids the utopian optimism of traditional golden age of the Western iconography. Some scholars see the panel in terms of a Communist utopia. but I don't think so. I think the panel makes us imagine peace and happiness and encourages us to believe in innocence rather than experience. Picasso depicted an image of what the peace warrior is defending: a vision of paradise. In February 1954, the two panels were installed in the chapel. After the installation, the chapel was closed for more than five years. It is not known what delayed the opening of the chapel to the public for so long. By the time the opening was at last planned to take place in July 1958, the government had changed. De Gaulle had come to power and the opening of the chapel was finally inaugurated in the September 1959. 피카소는 1946년 여름부터 질로(Francoise Gilot)와 사랑에 빠졌다. 두 사람 사이에 두 아이가 태어났고, 그들이 헤어진 1954년까지 피카소는 아마도 그의 생애에 가족, 남편, 아버지로서의 가장 행복한 시간을 보냈을 것이다. 인생의 후반부에 처음이자 마지막으로 그가 가족으로서의 행복을 느끼는 그 정점에 한국전쟁이 발발했고, 때문에 전쟁에 대한 울분과 편린(片鱗)의 정이 그의 어느 시기보다도 강했을 것이다. 한국전쟁이 그에게 직접적인 상처와 고통을 주지는 않았지만, 지구의 어디에서건 전쟁으로 인하여 죽음이 오고 가족이 해체되는 상황을 피카소는 용납할 수 없었을 것이다. 또한, 유럽에서 피카소의 세대는 제1차 세계대전과 제2차 세계대전을 겪었고, 피카소 개인적으로는 <게르니카>로 집약되는 스페인 내전을 지켜보았다. 이렇듯, 전쟁이라면 신물이 날즈음에 또다시 한국전쟁이 터졌으니 전쟁에 대한 그의 증오와 적개심은 행복의 정점에서 더욱 극단적으로 종폭 되었을 것이다.