Goya etched his way into art history

In the print “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos” by famous Spanish artist Francisco Goya, a man is sitting with his head on a table, perhaps sleeping. Above and behind him hover bats, cats and owls.

Goya’s print endorses French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau’s tenet that only reason keeps at bay our inner wild animal, said Andrew Connors, the curator of art at the Albuquerque Museum.

Many of the prints in the exhibit are satirical, though “El sueño” isn’t.

	If you go WHAT: “Francisco Goya: Los Caprichos” WHEN: Today through May 13. At 1 p.m. today, exhibit curator Robert Flynn Johnson discusses “Los Caprichos.” Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, plus every third Thursday 5-8:30 p.m. WHERE: Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain NW HOW MUCH: Admission is $3 New Mexico residents, $4 out-of-state residents, $2 seniors, $1 children 4-12. Free 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays, the first Wednesday of the month and 5-8:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month

“It addresses the darkness that lurks within us,” Connors said. “Rousseau declared that without reason humanity will create monsters.”

The print is one of 80 etchings, augmented with aquatint, on paper that comprise the rare first edition of Goya’s series “Los Caprichos,” completed in 1799. The set is the centerpiece of an exhibit, which opens today at the museum.

The etchings are considered one of the most influential graphic series in the history of western art. That’s because of Goya’s “aesthetic innovation by simplifying and stylizing the subjects when most artists were obsessed with detail and because Goya blatantly questioned authority,” Connors explained.

The prints are rare for several reasons, he said.

“One is because they did not sell well during Goya’s lifetime, therefore a small number of impressions of each image of ‘Los Caprichos’ were made,” Connors said.

“And two, this set is in immaculate condition. The paper is in pretty much the same condition as when Goya pulled the prints off the press, and they were not cut down to place in albums.”

Another point Connors made adds importance to these prints. They were made, he said, under Goya’s supervision in his Madrid studio, and probably were made “by his own hand, that is, he inked the plates, applied the paper to the plates, wiped the plates. So he handmade them.”

Another print in the set captures Goya’s satire. It’s titled “Que pico de oro!” (“What a gold beak!”). It shows an owl, which is considered a bad omen in Spain, that has mesmerized monks listening to the bird’s sermon. The intended meaning, Connors said, is that “it doesn’t take any intellect to make them think that this is the word of the Lord.”

He said Goya hated superstition and the belief in evil spirits or witches because he believed it was used to suppress people.

In his essay on the exhibit, exhibit curator Robert Flynn Johnson wrote that to understand Goya’s artistic achievement (and political liberalism) one must know Spain and its position in the world at the end of the 18th century.

“Spain was a country in religious, social, political and economic paralysis. The Catholic Church had inordinate power, with lingering vestiges of the Inquisition empowered to terrorize any perceived threat to Church authority,” Johnson wrote. “Inevitably, this power was used to thwart social and economic progress. The aristocratic structure was not much better.”

The traveling exhibit also contains a few prints from Goya’s other major graphic series – “Los Desastres de la Guerra,” “Los Proverbios” and “La Tauromaquia” and his early etchings after Diego Velasquez, Goya’s main role model in painting.

Also on display are a 1920s Edward Hagedorn drawing “Se Repulen,” which is based on a “Los Caprichos” print, and eight Enrique Chagoya etchings, one of which is his 1999 version of “El sueño de la razón” with missiles and stealth bombers replacing bats and cats.

The Albuquerque Museum added several more images to the exhibit – works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Richard Garcia and Roger Shimomura – to demonstrate Goya’s influence on contemporary artists.

“What I want people to sit up and think is the relevance of political commentary that’s 213 years old and yet how relevant it remains,” Connors said.

These are the education programs at the Albuquerque Museum being held with “Los Caprichos”:

♦ 1 p.m. today, Robert Flynn Johnson gives a talk on the exhibit.

♦ 6:30 p.m. Feb. 16, “Up Close With Goya.” Andrew Connors explores Goya’s techniques that made him a master printer.

♦ 1 p.m. March 10, “Family Fun: Getting to Know Goya.” Learn about Goya’s life and how he created his art. Albuquerque artist Larry Bob Phillips creates images of participants in the style of Goya.

♦ 2 p.m. March 18, members of the Chatter ensemble perform a a piece by Donald Grantham inspired by Goya’s “Los Caprichos” prints as well as music from the Spanish court.

♦ 1 p.m. April 8, Enrique Chagoya leads a discussion of his work as an artist and cultural satirist.

♦ 6:30 p.m. April 19, artists Anne and Scott Greene demonstrate the printing methods Goya used.

♦ 10 a.m. May 2, screening of the documentary film “Goya: Crazy Like a Genius” narrated by art critic/author Robert Hughes.