Art handlers carefully hung a tapestry of Picasso's Guernica at the MFAH on Friday, marking the first step towards the museum's anticipated Picasso Black and White exhibition opening on Feb. 24.
The rare rendition of the iconic antiwar painting was created in 1955 by master weavers Rene and Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach, who worked closely with the artist himself to translate the original 1937 canvas into wool. For the tapestry, Picasso replaced the harsh black-and-white of the painting with a warmer palette of sepia tones.
After hanging at the United Nations for several decades, this woolen Guernica gathered considerable attention in 2003 when it was covered with a blue curtain as Colin Powell made his case for the Iraq war in front of the Security Council. The tapestry left the U.N. in 2009 for London's Whitechapel Gallery and has been on long-term loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art since 2012.
For more on Guernica and its wooly cousin on view at the MFAH, watch the video above.
