Picasso's fight against fascism and the British surrealists who followed him

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
A new show of UK artists responses to the Spanish civil war is dominated by Picassos emotive works, but British artists also realised Spain was an ominous testing ground for future conflict

Buy 2 for 1 tickets for Conscience and Conflict - British Artists and the Spanish Civil War at theguardian.com/extra

It looks as if she has black stars in her eyes, but on closer inspection they are bombers, hovering as they did above Guernica, dropping their vile cargo. That is why she weeps. Her mouth is crumpled in grief, white as bone, sharp teeth chewing on a handkerchief. Green and yellow colours of death stain her cheeks. Her hair is a river of tears. An insect laps at a rivulet flowing from her eye as if sorrow were honey.

Pablo Picasso painted Weeping Woman as he mourned, and sought to make others mourn, the bombing of the ancient Basque capital Guernica in 1937. The greatest war art of the 20th century was not created in response to either world war, but the civil war that tore apart Spain when General Franco led a far-right revolt against the democratically elected Spanish republic. When German planes sent by Hitler bombed Guernica on Francos behalf, Picasso unleashed an unparalleled torrent of images.

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