Goya
Widely viewed as the last of the Old Masters and first of
the moderns Goya is a renowned Spanish artist whose profound portrayal of
suffering, alienation and visual denouncement of war and human savagery. The
horrors of the Spanish-French war was forever immortalized in a large series of
etchings the “Disasters of War” and from then on his work became increasingly
liberal going against the conservative norm imposed by the Bourbons and increasingly
innovative an unique. His figures are composed by heavy brushstrokes,
off-centre and lack of a set composition or focal point making the ghastly
figures in his later to be severely warped.
I was first attracted to Goya after talking to Ghislaine
Howard about parallels between her recent work (the Seven Works of Mercy) and
their equally powerful provoking works inspired me to strive toward something
just as profound and emotional in my work. Chiaroscuro plays a major theme
being a symbol of dread and fear of the unknown though in some ways serve to
mask the nightmarish things wandering around the bleak landscapes. It is this
contrast that creates thematic tension in the works and I intend to exploit
these motifs in my own work.
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