Goya

by Josep Gudiol i Ricart (Contributor), Goya (Artist)

Goya--the name alone evokes countless masterpieces, both painted and the raw and brutal “Third of May 1808,” the nightmarish Caprichos etchings (with the famous motto, “The sleep of reason produces monsters”), the compellingly erotic “Nude Maja” and “Clothed Maja,” the savage Disasters of War series and, of course, the late black paintings, with their murky forebodings of public unrest and private turmoil. Although Goya’s influence on his contemporaries was minimal (eclipsed as he was at the time by artists trained in the classical style of David and Ingres), it can now be traced clearly from Manet through Picasso to Surrealism, Polke, the Chapman brothers and on.
Nobody expressed the ravages of warfare and the extremes of human experience like Goya; it made him the envy of Picasso, who, as a young artist, copied his signature over and over, as though to absorb the personality and abilities of his one supreme influence. And it is perhaps the wildly imaginative freedoms of Goya’s late work that has kept him so contemporary--that, and the palpable emotion in his brushwork, so full of impact and sensation. Here, José Gudiol, renowned author of essays and monographs on Velázquez, El Greco and Spanish art, provides a serious introduction to the massive subject that is Goya.

Genres: Art, Spain

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1966

About the author

Josep Gudiol i Ricart, also known as José Gudiol in citation (5 July 1904–17 October 1985), was a Catalan art historian, specializing in Catalan Romanesque painting, Gothic painting and other types of Spanish art

Gudiol's daughter was the painter Montserrat Gudiol i Corominas (1933–2015)

Josep Gudiol i Ricart (Vic, 1904 - Barcelona, 1985) fou historiador de l'art i arquitecte. Era nebot de mossèn Josep Gudiol i Cunill, patriarca de la historiografia artística vigatana i ànima del Museu Episcopal de Vic i fou pare de la pintora Montserrat Gudiol.

Reviews

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice little book that focuses on Goya's disparates. provides some good comparative images as well as some overview on his process, the series, and this time in his life in Spain.

[Joel Ackerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goya is yet another example of a prolific worker making good. His sudden deafness due to illness did not seem to derail him in the slightest.

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

An older book, so the plates probably aren't as crisp as they might be in a newer one, but nice large format and the 15 (or so) color ones are pretty good; the B&W plates are often less sharp and overly contrasty. Still a decent introduction to the wonders of Goya, though.