Tuesday 28 April 2015

G is for Goya, War, the Chapman Brothers and Barron Storey

Goya,
Francisco Jose de Goya Lucientes
born on the 30th of March 1746
in Fuendetodos, Aragon, Spain
and died from a stroke at 82
in Bordeaux on the 16th of April 1828.

Source

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He was court painter to the Spanish Royal Family,
he also documented the short and long term effects of
the Peninsular War (1808-1814)
as well as the Dos de Mayo Uprising.
This series of aquatint illustrations
was entitled
"Desastres de la Guerra" (1812-1815)


Plate 3 - Source

It took 35 years for the collection of illustrations
of Goya's Disasters of War to be published due to
its criticism of the French and the Bourbons.

The plates are divided into three sections:
Plates 1 - 47 - Incidents and results of war on civilians and military personnel
Plates 48 - 64 - Effects of famine in Madrid (1811-1812)
Plates 65 - 80 - Thoughts of the liberals once the Bourbon Monarchy had been restored

Plate 71 - Against the Common Good - Source
A collection of the plates can be seen here.

The Chapman Brothers added their own perspective 
to a mint condition portfolio by adding 
either clown or puppy heads to the faces on the prints.

Source
 In an addendum to this recordings of genocide, 
the artist Barron Storey created an updated version. 
Black Iraq - where he tried to draw and paint every person
that died in the Iraq War. 
The exhibition can be seen here.

Source 

No doubt, this blog will revisit war.

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