French Literature Reviews - 2026
1937 Paris-Guernica
Novel and Narrative Prose
1937 Paris-Guernica
Thierry Beinstingel
MAREN SELL EDITEURS, 2007
Publisher's Description:
At first glance, 1937 is a year that seems to hold little significance.
The Popular Front is associated with a different year, and the Second World War followed shortly after. Yet, 1937 was the year of the Paris International Exposition. It was also the year of Guernica, and the thousand incendiary bombs dropped on the small Spanish town. And Guernica is also a canvas—the one Picasso painted on the Quai des Grands-Augustins in Paris, to be displayed at the Spanish Republican pavilion of the International Exposition. Here, the author tells the story of 1937, starting with the official catalogue of this "International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life".
It features a series of full-color photographs of the various pavilions erected along the banks of the Seine by the concert of nations of the era. These glossy, surreal, and deceptive postcards contrast with the black-and-white screams and convulsions of Guernica. We follow the photographer tasked with producing the catalogue as he captures the construction of this idealized, modern reality, while, in counterpoint, we witness Picasso at work through the lens of Dora Maar.
Two perspectives, two visions, whose historical coexistence reminds us how tragically insouciance, levity, and the illusion of progress can coexist with the march of barbarism. A call to vigilance.
Thierry Beinstingel, born in Langres in 1958, is a telecommunications executive. He has published three novels: Central (2000), Composants (honorable mention for the Prix Wepler, 2002), and Paysage et portrait en pied-de-poule (2004).
Set against the backdrop of the late 1930s, a period defined by the rise of totalitarianism and the prelude to World War II, this narrative operates at the intersection of historical fiction and artistic reflection. By focusing on the 1937 Paris International Exposition, Thierry Beinstingel captures a pivotal moment of European modernism. The book contrasts the state-sponsored optimism of the world's fair with the devastating reality of the Spanish Civil War, epitomized by the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica. Through this juxtaposition, the work examines how official propaganda and artistic expression compete to define historical memory.
The narrative employs a dual perspective, contrasting the commercial optimism of an official exhibition photographer with Dora Maar's intimate photographic documentation of Pablo Picasso creating his masterpiece, Guernica. This structure raises profound questions about the role of the artist in times of political crisis and the capacity of art to bear witness to tragedy. Readers interested in the relationship between art and politics, the history of photography, and the cultural landscape of interwar Europe will find this a compelling study of how easily societies can ignore impending catastrophe in the name of technological progress.