Descripción
The motif had previously been used on a poster, “Intellectuals for Peace in Vietnam”, published in March 1966, in which three other artists contributed: Vassarely, Mason and Soulages.
The armoured car in this poster is one of those invented by Picasso when he drew up the sketches, later published, by Claude Roy, a poet and novelist who was also a member of the Communist Party and was present while the painter was preparing the large “War and Peace” murals, later used to decorate the Chapel at Vallauris in 1952. This work, dated 5 October 1951, was one of many drawings Picasso made in preparation for these murals. At that time, Picasso wanted to capture in images the barbaric nature underlying Western civilization, and to do so he created a variety of lethal weapons and endowed them with human personalities.
This work symbolizes, in the form of a horrible imaginary creature, the savagery and mechanical strength of mindless beings, designed for the purpose of merciless slaughter. But a real being that, in this drawing, he portrays with large, impassive (or blind?) black eyes, a huge mouth and a multiple image from which, as if it were a metallic dragon, tongues of fire emerge and, to one side, several terrifying rows of voracious-looking teeth can be seen. Above, as if it were a loophole, he placed pistols and talking ears, threatening weapons that provoke fear.
On the same day, Picasso sketched five of these infernal machines, of which the last and cruelest is the one shown on the poster. Later, while drawing the War mural, he discarded the tanks which were replaced by a chariot pulled by angry, enraged horses that advance trampling books and farmland.
