Punk Skunk Guernica

Contemporary American artist Ron English merges brand imagery, motifs from popular culture, cartoon characters and art historical references in a unique style, which he has coined ‘Popaganda’. Having previously riffed on works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Leonardo da Vinci, he has recently reframed Picasso’s most famous masterpiece, ‘Guernica’.

Where Picasso’s mural is a powerful piece of propaganda, Ron English has painted witty, ‘popaganda’-styled interpretations of ‘Guernica’ which carry his own statements about today’s culture and divided societies as we advance towards new technologies. Inserting his own irreverent imagery, characters and visual references into Picasso’s template, English’ highly-imaginative phantasmagorical tableau assume iconic status, while asserting the artist’s own position as a great contemporary master.

‘Punk Skunk Guernica’ by Ron English is his subversive reimagining of Picasso’s epic anti-war mural. While paying tribute to the high drama, dynamic composition and atmospheric palette of the original, English has replaced Picasso’s cast of tragic characters with imagined creatures from his very own invented world, Delusionville.

Delusionville is, in English’s words, “like a fairy tale”, which he has not only painted in compelling detail, but written and composed songs about. Split by a river, there is a rich and poor divide, and “every animal that falls down the hole from the surface world has to negotiate their position, ending up on different sides” of this underground realm. Mostly, they find their roles reversed, with the Wolf discovering that he has become a “slave to all animals, existing at the lowest position in this society”, while “the little ducks are more superior”.

Developed by the artist himself, the “alternative reality” of Delusionville and its characters take central part in the artwork: three-headed rabbits, vultures, a large pig and the winged First Lady of Delusionville, Elefanka, are among those pictured in this frame. Building toy sculptures, he has worked from a set of his own making for this artwork. Striking a comic note, English’s version carries the feel of Pop Surrealism, in which artists distort recognisable symbols, characters and iconography in unexpected ways.

There is also a dream-like quality to the composition, which he has imagined in an evocative and muted palette, which he has developed “in relationship to Picasso's original.” In sharp black and white, and standing prominently in the foreground, is Punk Skunk, who he has developed as a character for people to relate to. Growing from his tail is a striking marijuana leaf symbol, inviting questions about the nature of reality. While Picasso was protesting war, English says that he “wanted to talk about social class in America, which is never even acknowledged”. Having created the cloak of a fairy tale and own cast of characters, his figures “all have their own politics, and all their own religions.” Punk Skunk Guernica’ is a modern-day fable about cultural divides in today’s context.

It was in 1937 that Picasso painted ‘Guernica’ as a powerful piece of propaganda, protesting the horrific bombing of the Basque town by Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Having seen Picasso’s epic, anti-war mural in person and taking this art historical icon as his template, English decided that he wanted to do “100 versions of it in every way that I could think of.”. English has self-consciously kept some of the most symbolic imagery from Picasso’s mural, paying tribute to his predecessor. With the adaptations, he has paid tribute to the billboard-like scale and composition of the original, resonating deeply with his own earlier work. Having started his career as a street artist in the late 1970s, English hijacked billboards across America, radically altering big brands’ original messaging by inserting new text, images and cartoon characters in a provocative and early form of ‘culture jamming’.

This Mixed Media Limited-Edition on Canvas hand-signed by Ron English and can be purchased in a set of two.

Find out more about this collection here or alternatively shop more Ron English artwork here.