Goya, Chronicler of All Wars
This series of paintings and drawings details Goya’s eyewitness accounts of the Spanish Civil War, and the works come from the archives of the National Library of Spain. Goya’s works are considered by many to be a precursor to the documentary war photography of photographers such as Robert Capa.
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Goya: cronista de todas las guerras. Los Desastres y la fotografía de guerra
Instituto Cervantes Pekín: From the 27th of August 2010 to the 2th of December 2010 The exhibition Goya, Chronicler of All Wars: The Disasters and War Photography, places the figure of Goya as precursor to photojournalism by using photography to bring Goya’s legacy closer to today. It is the war reporters who have taken on the same denouncement, who can be considered inheritors of the famous painter’s commitment.
The 82 aquatint etchings that make up the series Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) illustrate the rawness and savagery of war, in this case, the Peninsular War (1808 – 1814), with prints of unrestricted severity and an underlying condemnation of the senselessness of war and its devastating consequences. This is exactly the universal message that Goya wanted to convey and that, via the photographs of yesterday and today’s war reporters, still condemns armed conflicts.
The series of prints is completed with a selection of photographs of the Spanish Civil War from the archives of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (National Library of Spain) that demonstrate the universal power of the images of Los Desastres. The Spanish Civil War had tremendous international press coverage by extraordinary correspondents such as Robert Capa, David Seymour and Hans Namuth, as well as important Spanish photographers such as Agustí Centelles and Alfonso Sánchez.
Free entrance. To RSVP or request further information please contact: pren2pek@cervantes.org.cn or cult3pek@cervantes.org.cn
