The mission of the Happy Ending Project has been crystal clear from Day One. Our aim is to render classic works of literature and art (emphasis ours) more appealing to normal people by supplying them with happy endings. “Take the broom to the gloom” is our motto.
This process is relatively straightforward when it comes to literature. Concerning art, however, the methodology is potentially far more complex, since it could involve altering the appearance of the artworks by, say, putting smiles on the faces of Edward Hopper’s melancholy “Nightbirds” or installing a drinking fountain in Michelangelo’s “Pieta.”
We have decided, to quote Lenin, to “go another way.” For the artwork improvements undertaken by the Happy Ending Project, we will, for now, concern ourselves only with titles. Wherever possible, we will retitle the works in the hope of changing the viewer’s experience of them to ensure that it is a happy one. Our first subject is typically challenging, Picasso’s harrowing “Guernica,” which depicts an aerial attack during Spain’s Civil War during which civilians in the Basque town of Guernica were bombed by Nazi air forces allied to Franco’s Fascists.
The writhing human forms and terrified livestock seem to fully embody the pity and horror of war. And yet, by simply changing the title, “Guernica” becomes an altogether different work: a celebration rather than an indictment.
Here then is the original version of “Guernica”:
And here it is with a new title:
The Joy of the Dance by Pablo Picasso
