University of Delaware hosts Goya’s “Disasters of War” exhibit

PanARMENIAN.Net - The University Museums of the University of Delaware is presenting the exhibition “Goya’s War: Los Desastres de la Guerra” to run through Dec. 8 in the Old College Gallery, UDaily said.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) created the eighty etchings that comprise Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) in reaction to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and the political turmoil that followed. Created 200 years ago, these prints remain relevant to today’s world -- artists from Manet and Picasso to Golub and the Chapman brothers have looked to them for inspiration; they have been reformatted to serve as a cover for Susan Sontag’s exploration of pain; and they appear as illustrations in political commentary.

Given their subjects of death, brutality, and the impact of war on civilians of all ranks and ages, Los Desastres de la Guerra are not easy to look at, and perhaps for this reason are rarely exhibited in their entirety.

A collaboration of the Pomona College Museum of Art and the University Museums, University of Delaware, this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue present all 80 prints of the fine first edition from the collection of the Pomona College Museum of Art, and is curated by Goya scholar Janis Tomlinson, director of the University Museums.