The whims of Francisco de Goya and the surrealism of Salvador Dalí converge in an exhibition at the Jade Museum in Costa Rica with the presentation of 80 engravings by the famous Spanish painters.
The exhibition called “Del Capricho al Disparate” represents a satire by Goya towards Spanish society at the end of the 18th century, especially the aristocracy, the nobility and the clergy, while Dalí transforms these images by adding color and incorporating surrealist figures.
«Goya makes a complaint about the disagreement he had. It is said that the engravings were put up for sale and then he withdrew them for fear of the inquisition, and 200 years later, to commemorate the production of these engravings, Dalí is asked to make an intervention, and he does a reading from his surreal experience and in some empty spaces he incorporates his own elements such as soft clocks, the giraffe”, explained the director of the Jade Museum, Laura Rodríguez.
Goya worked the 80 engravings that make up the Caprichos series using etching and aquatint techniques, while the images reinterpreted by Dalí in 1977 were made from a combination of techniques such as heliogravure, drypoint and printing, among others.
One of the works that stands out the most is “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” because Dalí did not change the title, unlike the other engravings, and it has to do with psychoanalysis as well as the paranoid critic that Dalí speaks of, in the which seeks to reinforce its message.
In addition, the work that opens the series, which deals with a portrait of Goya where Dalí keeps the engraving intact and makes an external intervention where his unique line can be seen.
Unique opportunity
«This is an opportunity to meet, or re-see this work of artists who at the time have had a very important representation and influence, each one from their field, to reflect and bring us culturally closer to reading, thinking and concerns from other artists,” Rodríguez said.
The exhibition arrives in Costa Rica, thanks to inter-institutional work led by the Embassy of Spain in Costa Rica, the National Insurance Institute, the Jade Museum and the Ibero-American University Foundation (FUNIBER).
A real challenge
«Making this exhibition was a different challenge, first because they are foreign artists and to understand what each one wanted to convey about the engravings. That is why it is important to have a broader, more global reading of what they were trying to convey at different times but which continue to be such current issues,” said Rodríguez.
For a long time, the series was virtually unknown in Spain and the rest of the world, except in France, where it was exhibited for the first time in 1977 at the Goya Museum, located in the town of Castres.This exhibition, which has traveled to more than 17 countries, will be held at the Jade Museum, located in downtown San José, until next September.
