CalendarPast Exhibitions
Yo lo ví: Dream and Reality in the Prints of Francisco de Goya
Yo lo ví: Dream and Reality in the Prints of Francisco de Goya
- Dates
- Tuesday 8 July- Monday 15 September 2014
- Hours
- 9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Fridays 9:30 am - 8:00 pm (Admission ends 30 mins. before closing time) - Closed
- Mondays except 21 July, 11 August and 15 September.
Closed on22 July. - Venue
- Prints and Drawings Gallery, NMWA
- Organized by
- The National Museum of Western Art
- Admission Fees
- Adults 430 yen (220 yen), College students 130 yen (70 yen)
Numbers in parentheses indicate discount fees for groups of 20 or more.
Admission is free for Special Exhibition or Permanent Collection ticket holders.
Visitors aged 18 and under or 65 and older are admitted free of charge. Please show your ID upon entrance to confirm your age.
Disabled visitors admitted free of charge, with one attendant. Please present your disability identification upon arrival.
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) produced prints over the course of almost his entire painting career. His major print works form four series of copperplate prints, Los Caprichos (published in 1799), The Disasters of War (produced in ca. 1810–1820), La Tauromaquia (published 1816), and Los Disparates (produced in 1820-1823).
Compared to his oil paintings, Goya’s print works seem to sum up a phrase found on one of the sheets in The Disasters of War series, “Yo lo ví,” or what I have seen. They are product of what the artist as one individual had seen, and thus are freer, more personal in expression.
The Disasters of War and Los Disparates were not published during Goya’s own lifetime, and sales of Los Caprichos were cut short. Against this background these works conceal an extremely private, and indeed modern sensibility, one that deviates from the various conventions of art expression of their day. What Goya saw spanned the full spectrum, from shocking social injustice and acts of war witnessed with an enlightened eye, to dream-like surreal, romantic visions conjured up from his rich imagination. Goya’s print oeuvre constructs a unique realm that mixes and mingles these diverse elements.
The NMWA collections house 215 prints by Goya, including the entire runs of the above named four great print series. This exhibition presents a selection of about 40 Goya prints, investigating the two realms he saw, dream and reality, focusing on works that were not displayed during the 2011–2012 exhibition Goya: Lights and Shadows. Masterpieces of the Museo del Prado.
Francisco de Goya
《<The Disasters of War>: I saw it.》
ca. 1810-12 etching, drypoint and engraving on wove paper
Francisco de Goya
《<Los Disparates>: Flying Folly》
ca. 1820-23 etching and aquatint
