Park West Gallery Features Collection of "Modern" Master, Francisco Goya
Park West Gallery Artist Biography series invites you to experience the revolutionary artwork of Francisco Goya.
(PRWEB) July 5, 2007 -- Park West Gallery Artist Biography series invites you to experience the revolutionary artwork of Francisco Goya. Through his artwork, Goya endeavored to make profound commentary on the social and political events surrounding him. "Goya is always a great artist, often a frightening one...light and shade play upon atrocious horrors," said Charles Baudelaire in an essay from "Curiosites Estrangers" (1842).
Born in Fuendetodos, Spain in 1746, Goya was the son of a gilder father. At the age of 14 was apprenticed to painter, José Luján, in Saragossa, where Goya's Rococo frescoes would later make him famous. He also studied with Mengs, a popular painter of the Royal Court, in Madrid. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1774, whom he met while studying in Italy. The next years were spent creating cartoon-like tapestry designs as well as painting various royal commissions. Goya's portrait paintings for the Spanish aristocracy led to his appointment as the Royal Painter to the King in 1799.
Goya was profoundly changed in 1792 when a serious illness caused him to become deaf. He turned introspective and as a result became more preoccupied with depicting the inventions of his dark imagination and less involved with painting scene of social and political upheaval. His satirical observations of human nature manifested in the 1799 publishing of a series of aquatint etchings, "The Caprichos."
"Always lines, never forms! But where do they find these lines in Nature! For my part I see only forms that are lit up and forms that are not. There is only light and shadow. I can only see luminous or obscure masses, planes that advance or planes that recede, reliefs or background. My eye never catches lines or details," - Francisco Goya.
The disturbing series of prints called, "Disasters of War," was Goya's commentary on French invasion of 1808. Later known as the "Black Paintings," this series of Goya's works were often mythological interpretations of the civil unrest and war surrounding him. In his later years, Goya traveled between Spain and France, eventually settling in Bordeaux where he died in 1828.
Goya created some of the first masterpieces in lithography, a newly discovered medium in his time. His bold techniques and favoritism toward the traditions of painting over the artist's own vision substantiate Goya's distinction as the last of the old masters and the first "modern" artist.
"First be a magnificent artist and then you can do whatever, but the art must be first."
Park West Gallery of Michigan founded in 1969 are America's largest art dealer, selling more individual artworks than any other art dealer in the United States. Since 1980, the company has occupied its own 63,000 sq ft art gallery and in 2002, Park West built a 181,000 sq ft distribution center and gallery in Miami Lakes, Florida. Park West Gallery conducts auctions across North America in fine hotels and maintains an active catalog and internet sales business. Park West Gallery is also the largest art dealer conducting auctions at sea and currently conducts auctions on more than 60 ships for the following cruise lines: Carnival Cruise Lines; Celebrity Cruises Inc.; Disney Cruise Line; Holland America Line; Radisson Seven Seas Cruises; Royal Caribbean International; Windstar Cruises.
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