The Fondation Beyeler presents one of the most significant exhibitions ever devoted to Francisco de Goya (1746–1828). Goya was one of the last great court artists and the first forerunner of modern art. He was both a painter of impressive portraits and an inventor of enigmatic, highly personal pictorial worlds. It is precisely from these irreducible contradictions that Goya’s art draws its magical fascination.
Spanning more than 60 years, Goya’s career covers a period ranging from Rococo to Romanticism. He depicted saints and criminals, witches and demons, pushing open the gate to realms in which the boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred. In his art, Goya shows himself a keen observer of the drama unfolding between reason and irrationality, dreams and nightmares.
The exhibition brings together around 70 paintings and more than 100 masterful drawings and prints, inviting viewers on a journey into the beautiful and the unfathomable. For the first time, seldom seen paintings from Spanish private collections are shown alongside key works from the most prestigious European and American museums and private collections.
The exhibition is organised by the Fondation Beyeler in collaboration with the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.
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The exhibition is accompanied by a new film by Philippe Parreno (*1964, lives and works in Paris). The renowned contemporary artist devotes a new work to Goya’s long-destroyed country house and its legendary murals, the Pinturas negras (Black paintings). In Parreno’s artistic exploration, these visionary masterpieces are filmed up-close and set to imaginary sounds. This fascinating installation illustrates Goya’s enduring influence on subsequent generations of artists from Picasso to Warhol to the present day.
The exhibition is generously supported by:
As well as further patrons who prefer to remain anonymous.
