Goya masterpieces in city for first time

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The exhibition displays 230 works, sheding light on Goya’s extraordinary imagination. AA photo

The work of one of the most unique artists in the history of European painting, Francisco de Goya, often cited as a forerunner of modern painting, will be exhibited for Turkish audiences for the first time in a show at Istanbul’s Pera Museum April 20 through July 29.

Curated by Marisa Oropesa, the exhibition, titled “Witness of His Time” consists of works from leading museums and private collections in Spain and Italy. Goya is known for his excellent depictions of darkness, and the exhibition includes both paintings and the engraving series “Caprichos,” “Disasters of War,” “Tauromaquia,” and “Proverbs or Follies,” which bear witness to a turbulent period in Spanish and European history.

The 230 works in the exhibition, created simultaneously with Goya’s career as a court painter and portraitist, shed light on the artist’s extraordinary imagination, while reflecting the social circumstances of his era from a critical perspective. His realistic and at times frightening style separates him from his contemporaries: His art transcended time, and would later influence 20th-century modernism.

Various events and conferences on related topics will be held throughout the duration of the Pera exhibit.