The three renowned series of prints by the Spanish master Francisco de Goya – Caprices, The Disasters of War and Proverbs – were presented for the first time in Portugal at the Cascais Cultural Centre.

Goya is synonymous of revolution. He established a before and an after in the development of painting, converting it into the key and indispensable element of the birth of Modern Art. If academic art represented tradition, Goya’s experimentalism is the antithesis of this same tradition.

The Spanish War of Independence had a profound impact on Goya who, with his series The Disasters of War, showed the raw and truly dramatic side of war, as opposed to the traditional glorification of the victors.

The Caprices series portrays “human errors and vices”, according to Goya himself, exposing the Spanish society of the time in a satirical manner.

The last of his great series of prints is called Proverbs or The Follies, undoubtedly the most mysterious etchings he ever made. Their meaning has been the subject of numerous interpretations.

Other Info:
Presented in Portugal by: D. Luís I Foundation
Cascais Cultural Centre, Cascais
29 Juneto8 September 2013

Gallery photos courtesy of D. Luís I Foundation / Nuno Lemos