It was long assumed that, unlike their foreign contemporaries, Spanish artists did not draw and produced little in printmaking. That misconception has been shattered by Mark McDonald, Curator at the British Museum, who has searched the museum’s collection to produce ‘Renaissance to Goya: Prints and Drawings from Spain’.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales is the only Australian venue to show these incredible works of over 130 drawings and prints, many of which have never been on display before. Visitors are offered a rare insight into four centuries of Spain’s visual culture and history. Among the artists included are Velazquez, Murillo, Zurbáran, Ribera and above all Goya, with themes of Iberian religious, cultural and dramatic passion bordering on violence.
Over the years there has been much misconception that there was little or no Spanish graphic art before Goya, a thought definitively dismissed by this exhibition. In its accompanying publication, Mark McDonald argues that Spanish drawings are rare and were not regarded as collectable works of art in their time.
McDonald further argues that the distinction and importance of these drawings and prints lies in their intimate vision into the creative processes of the artists; “They show artists thinking aloud on paper. They are a key into their world.” Their strength is found in their detail; “They are objects made to be seen up close, requiring engaged intimacy, not from ten feet away behind a cord barrier. These are to be seen from three inches away.”
The exhibition chronologically gives a detailed panorama of over 250 years of graphic art production in various techniques, taking us from the mid 16th century to the early 19th century. The exhibition also demonstrates how the art of drawing was influenced and inspired by the cultural connections Spain had with other European countries while keeping an unmistakably patriotic Spanish character. The first few rooms explore the emergence, use and development of drawing and print techniques, and it’s an interesting story. Works of incredible skill and precision by artists such as Italian-born Vincente Carducho, Alonso Berruguette, Francisco Rizi, Francisco de Herrera the Younger, and Jose de Ribera.
The final period of this sequential exhibition is dedicated to Goya – the last of the Old Masters and the first of the modern. Selections of his work demonstrate the huge range of his graphic ability and the subjects that absorbed him. Much has been written of Goya’s ‘lone genius’ but the exhibition sets out to challenge this perception by exploring how his art should be seen in the context of the unprecedented scientific, social, and artistic developments that were taking place in Spain and the rest of Europe during the time.
There is something compelling in the grim nature of his prints, which range from the advertently macabre to the subtle and sinister, with horrifying images of witches, prostitutes, goblins and priests coexisting in Los Caprichos, 1799, together with tragic scenes of loss and desperation in the infamous Disasters of war series, c. 1810–1815, published 1863. They bring to the viewer a feeling of caution – a fear that they should not be studied too closely for threat of the dark secrets they might reveal, which is perhaps what makes them all the more captivating.
‘Renaissance to Goya’ provides a glimpse into the history of drawing and printmaking in Spain but it’s the astounding Goya prints on display that make this exhibition memorable. According to McDonald, a Goya can keep asking questions about society and in turn our own personal perspectives.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Until November 24, 2013
Sydney
Francisco de Zurbarán 1598–1664, Head of a monk, 1635–55, black chalk and grey wash with traces of pen and ink, 27.7 x 19.6cm
1895,0915.873, © The Trustees of the British Museum
Francisco Goya Y Lucientes 1746–1828, For being of Jewish ancestry, 1808–14, brush drawing in brown ink and wash, 20.5 x 14.2cm
862,0712.187, © The Trustees of the British Museum
