Goya [Hardcover]

Fred Licht (Author), Francisco Goya (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

Organized according to the mediums and genres in which the artist worked, this is a comprehensive survey of Goya's paintings and prints, his art and its impact on the modern world. Born in 1746 in a small Aragonese town, Goya rose to prominence in Madrid in the period around 1780, being named court painter in 1786. The atrocities of the Napoleonic period and the repressions of the restored Bourbon regime led Goya to paint his greatest works, now recognized as harbingers of modern art. Goya died in exile in France in 1828.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The tempestuous works of Spanish painter Francisco Goya (b.1746) set him far apart from his European contemporaries. He is best known for his ability to get away with subtly mocking the bourgeoisie, something most brilliantly accomplished in his notorious "Family of Charles V." The painter was a witness to the ferociously bloody resistance by the Spanish during France's occupation, which greatly influenced his work, and he was also afflicted by an illness that robbed him of his hearing. Goya went on to produce some of the most grotesque, capricious, and chilling images in the history of Western art with his "Black Paintings" series. This well-structured book includes hundreds of cropped and full-framed color reproductions of Goya's oeuvre. In the highly analytical text, Licht, curator for the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice, investigates and contextualizes specific eras of the artist's life, ranging from the satirical graphic art of "The Caprichos" to his group portraits, his tapestries, religious paintings, and eventually the "Black Paintings." In his section on the Majas (self-assured Madrilene ladies), Licht disputes the widespread speculation that the woman depicted in Goya's most scandalous paintings, "The Naked Maja" and "The Clothed Maja," was not society lady the Marquesa de Alba (with whom Goya has also been romantically linked) but rather an unknown woman. Licht's ability to see Goya's life and works from the contemporary perspective of modern art and culture, rather than from that of a classic art historian or technical observer, makes for a psychoanalytical and insightful study. Recommended for libraries with large collections on European painters. Adriana Lopez, "Cr¡ticas"
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...a refreshing corrective. His erudition is rich and allusive. He looks minutely at the pictures, his argument is arresting." -- V. S. Pritchett, The New Yorker

"...casts dazzling light not only on Goya, but also on the entire history of modern art and culture." -- Robert Rosenblum, Professor of Modern European Art, New York University

"A brilliant book... filled with new observations and striking analogies." -- Sir John Pope-Hennessy, late Consultative Chairman, European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

"The most brilliant, far ranging, and profound study of this fascinating artist that I have ever read." -- Linda Nochlin, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Modern Art at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789207273
• ISBN-13: 978-0789207272
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 11.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant illustrations, illuminating text, December 31, 2009

By 

Ivor E. Zetler (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Goya (Hardcover)

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is to my mind one top 10 painters in the history of art. Much of his later work is confronting, difficult, startlingly modern and unforgivingly realistic. It is said that the darkness of his mature style (a bit like Beethoven's) was influenced by severe hearing loss (after a bout of cholera in 1792) and mental instability (possibly resultant from encephalitis). It took me some years to fully appreciate Goya's greatness and it is understandable that neophytes to some if his art find it superficially unattractive.

In his preface to this volume, Fred Licht states that "This book is not a monograph but a series of investigations of those aspects of Goya's art that makes him specially pertinent to our times." Whatever Licht's aims might be, I can strongly recommend the book as an excellent overview of the artist's life and creative output. The eminently readable text is perceptive, informative and scholarly. Additionally this large and weighty book has 276 excellently reproduced examples of Goya's paintings, drawings and etchings. This includes some related works by other artists.

Goya enthusiasts might care to investigate 2 further books on the subject; Robert Hughes's "Goya" and "Goya and the Spirit of Enlightenment"(National Gallery Washington).

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable, October 6, 2007

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AH Art lover UK - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Goya (Hardcover)

I have always loved Goya, so buying unseen off the internet was less of a risk. The book is a bit oversized without the advantage this often gives, as the layout leaves a lot to be desired, and visually, this has the feel of a mass market book. However, the paintings are stunning and reasonably reproduced, and being a thick book, the selection is pretty representative, and include the prints. The text is also readable. Worth buying as I am not aware of any other book of this size in print at present.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Must Have for Art Fans, July 2, 2010

By 

Linda Hartman "lhartman" (Casper, Wyoming USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Goya (Hardcover)

I needed a good picture of The Executions of May 3rd, which I was painting for a class. I had no idea which art book to buy, but finally selected Professor Licht's book hoping to get a good picture out of it for my painting. The executions reproduction takes up two pages, but that is of no importance.

Other art students may agree that many art history books tend to be tedious reading. Professor Licht is not only a great art historian, he can actually write, and gives us deep insight into Goya, a painter he has clearly sought to understand. The quality of the reproductions is excellent, and the scholarship and brilliance of the author was more than I could have hoped.

I started reading the book immediately upon receiving it, and couldn't put it down. It reads like an engrossing novel, and gives us Goya in depth, a man who worked out his devils and convictions on canvas. Of course Goya was a genius whose works transcend time. However, Professor Licht helped me to understand Goya and his works in a cultural context and his ties to his predecessors, contemporaries, and modern artists. I was deeply moved by this book, and I know you will be too.