Blood and Ink: Disasters of War from Goya to the Chapman Brothers

April 5 – June 15, 2007

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Carretadas al cementerio (Cartloads to the cemetery), from the series “The Disasters of War,” ca. 1820 (1863 1st ed.). Sixth edition printed in the Calcografía nacional for the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1930. Etching, aquatint, and drypoint on laid Arches paper. Courtesy of the Grinnell College Art Collection, Gift of Helena Percas de Ponseti and Ignacio V. Ponseti.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Tampoco (Not [in this case] either), from the series “The Disasters of War,” ca. 1820 (1863 1st ed.). Sixth edition printed in the Calcografía nacional for the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1930. Etching, burnished aquatint, and drypoint on laid Arches paper. Courtesy of the Grinnell College Art Collection, Gift of Helena Percas de Ponseti and Ignacio V. Ponseti.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Grande hazaña! Con muertos! (An heroic feat! With dead men!), from the series “The Disasters of War,” ca. 1820 (1863 1st ed.). Sixth edition printed in the Calcografía nacional for the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1930. Etching, lavis, and drypoint on laid Arches paper. Courtesy of the Grinnell College Art Collection, Gift of Helena Percas de Ponseti and Ignacio V. Ponseti.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Las resultas (The consequences), from the series “The Disasters of War,” ca. 1820 (1863 1st ed.). Sixth edition printed in the Calcografía nacional for the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1930. Etching on laid Arches paper. Courtesy of the Grinnell College Art Collection, Gift of Helena Percas de Ponseti and Ignacio V. Ponseti.

Controversial in his lifetime, Spanish artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes continues to generate strong responses in the present. A series of prints entitled Disasters of War, which he made during the conflict between Spain and France in the early 1800s, depicted the brutality and suffering of war so graphically that they were not published until after his death. The same prints have served as inspiration for the work of the brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, British artists who work collaboratively. Their print series Disasters of War updates Goya’s images while retaining his shock value as well as aspects of his style and technique.