Graphic Evolutions: The Print Series of Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya was among the first artists to exploit the full potential of the etching process and within this medium, he created an autonomous world inhabited by beings who display a gamut of human follies such as lust, stupidity, superstition, and greed. Free from a patron's desires, Goya produced in his prints stinging images that caricatured the vices of contemporary society embodied by hypocritical lovers, gluttonous monks, victims of the Inquisition, prostitutes, and charlatans.

Graphic Evolutions: The Print Series of Francisco Goya includes examples of prints from the artist's various series: Los Caprichos; Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War); Los Disparates (The Follies); La Tauromaquia (The Bullfight); and The Bulls of Bordeaux.

While recent scholarship has focused primarily on the iconographic interpretations of Goya's prints, Graphic Evolutions: The Print Series of Francisco Goya, will encourage an alternative point of view. In the exhibition, curator Janis Tomlinson will explore a chronological ordering of the print series, Los Caprichos, that contradicts the published sequence.

Based on her study, Professor Tomlinson suggests that Goya's technical development often parallels the thematic evolution of a series. In Los Caprichos (published in Madrid in 1799), Goya first portrays goblins and witches, etched with a fine line. As the series evolves, the handling becomes looser and the artist depends more on tone, created with the use of aquatint. In this style, he explores the flirtation and antagonism between the sexes; depicts unfortunates who are the victims of their own passions, of social institutions, or of ignorance; and ultimately returns to images of goblins who assume the foibles of their mortal counterparts.

The exhibit will also illustrate Goya's marked stylistic development in the series Los Desastres de la Guerra (published posthumously in 1863). The imagery in this series was inspired by contemporary events: the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the Madrid famine of 1811-12, and the repressive regime of Ferdinand VII. In the series, viewers may witness an evolution from a more objective documentary style in the early scenes, supplanted by compositions that isolate individual struggles, turning tragedies into emblems.

The entire series of 33 etchings that comprise La Tauromaquia undoubtedly Goya's most technically accomplished etchings -- will be displayed in the main gallery. Although these works appear to document the history of the bullfight in Spain, closer examination reveals the artist's sense of invention, with his portrayal of anomalistic costumes and historic characters.

Also represented in the exhibition are Los Disparates (published in 1864) in which Goya portrays gratuitous violence, and senseless superstition and paranoia; and the late lithographs, The Bulls of Bordeaux, published in 1825.

An exhibition catalogue published by Columbia University Press accompanies the exhibition. The 70-page catalogue contains an essay by Janis Tomlinson and an introduction by Professor David Rosand of Columbia University as well as  30 illustrations and a checklist of works in the exhibition. It is available for purchase at the Wallach Art Gallery for $15.00.

The Print Series of Francisco Goya is curated by Janis Tomlinson, Assistant Professor of Art History at Columbia University and a specialist in Spanish art. Professor Tomlinson curated two other exhibitions on Goya's prints, one at the Spanish Institute in New York city in 1985, and the other at the Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. Among her publications are catalogues for both of these exhibitions as well as articles in scholarly journals. Her book, Francisco Goya: The Tapestry Cartoons and Early Career at the Court of Madrid will be published in spring 1989 by Cambridge University Press