Goya’s Dark Prints Journey Deep Into The Heart of Texas

 
Our forthcoming title, “Art + Travel Europe: Step into the Lives of Five Famous Painters”, tours you through the life of Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (“Goya” to you and me) in his beloved Madrid. But for those of you who want a full serving of Goyas that you haven’t seen at New York’s Metropolitan but aren’t cashing in your frequent-flier miles this month, there’s an exhibit down in the Lone Star State ideal for you.

From now until early March, the Blanton Museum of Art on the lovely campus of the University of Texas at Austin (go ‘horns!) is hosting “Goya’s Prints: The Dawn of Modern Art”, an exhibition of 30 of his famous, widely distributed images of conflict, want, and death during the Peninsular War of the early 19th Century. It’s a clutch of works made at a time when Goya was cemented icon in his native country, a man who had survived war, inquisition, and disability to become the most noted, and perhaps more importantly, trusted artist of his day. Rich in grayscale texture, not only were these prints the best, and often most known, images of that war for the Spanish public, but fillips of early expressionism and other figurative tropes laid a blueprint for what would grow into what we now know as “Modern Art”. It’s a perfect warm up for the MoMA’s forthcoming “The Modern Myth: From Francisco de Goya to Matthew Barney”, bowing on March 10th in New York.
 
So, if you’re down in them parts to catch some music or you’re just not ready to follow in the the footsteps of Spain’s old master, put it on your schedule.
 
“Goya’s Prints: The Dawn of Modern Art”
Now Through March 7
The Blanton Museum of Art
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
200 East Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard
(512) 471-7324
www.blantonmuseum.org
 
Image: “Disparate General”, Francisco Goya, c.1816-1824, visit it at the Blanton.