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Francisco Goya survived an illness that left him deaf, withdrew to a house outside Madrid, and covered its plaster walls with dark, private paintings he never named, never exhibited and never tried to sell.

Goya's Black Paintings, 1819–1823

ArtHistory

Why it matters

The idea in context

He was in his seventies, had lived through war and famine, and was painting for no audience at all — there is no evidence he intended anyone to see them. They are unlike anything else of the period: raw, unresolved, closer to the twentieth century than the nineteenth. Decades after his death the murals were transferred from plaster onto canvas, a brutally difficult operation that damaged them, and moved to the Prado. He is the rare artist whose most radical work was made privately, in old age, with nothing to gain.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Francisco Goya, kendisini sağır bırakan bir hastalığı atlattı, Madrid dışındaki bir eve çekildi ve sıvalı duvarlarını hiç adlandırmadığı, hiç sergilemediği ve satmayı hiç denemediği karanlık, özel resimlerle kapladı.
Goya'nın Kara Resimleri, 1819-1823

Yetmişli yaşlarındaydı, savaş ve kıtlık görmüştü ve hiçbir izleyici için resim yapmıyordu — bunları birinin görmesini istediğine dair kanıt yok. Dönemin başka hiçbir şeyine benzemezler: Ham, çözülmemiş, on dokuzuncu yüzyıldan çok yirminciye yakın. Ölümünden onlarca yıl sonra duvar resimleri sıvadan tuvale aktarıldı — onlara zarar veren, acımasız güçlükte bir işlem — ve Prado'ya taşındı. En radikal işini, kazanacak hiçbir şeyi yokken, yaşlılıkta ve özel olarak yapmış ender sanatçılardandır.

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Background reading: Black PaintingsAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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