Exhibition of Goya and Dali in the Pushkin Museum. Telephone receiver with a parrot

From January 24 to March 12 at the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin will host the exhibition “Caprichos. Goya and Dali."

The exhibition will feature works from two graphic series of engravings: “Caprichos” by Francisco Goya from the collection of the Pushkin Museum and “Caprichos by Goya”, created by Salvador Dali, from the collection of Boris Friedman.

The exhibition includes 41 engravings by Goya and corresponding 41 engravings by Dali. 19th-century prints from the original 1799 boards were made by Goya using the technique of etching with aquatint. While the works of Salvador Dali were executed in the techniques of etching, drypoint and pochoir and printing on top of heliogravures from Goya's original etchings.

Each pair of sheets by Goya and Dali is accompanied by Goya's commentary. Thus, the exhibition represents a literary text (Goya's comments) and illustrations to it (etchings by Goya and Dali). This design of the exhibition will allow the viewer to better understand what was done by the artists, to feel the modern sound of a work of art created more than two hundred years ago and continued in the twentieth century.

One of the pinnacles of Francisco Goya’s graphic creativity is his creation of the “Caprichos” series of etchings. Caprichos (Italian capricci; French caprices; Spanish caprichos) is a special genre that developed in the art of Western Europe at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, involving the creation in the visual arts, music or poetry of a series of whims, quirks or fantasies, united by some topic.

The artist created the first sketches for the “Caprichos” series in 1793. In its final form, the graphic series was designed by him in 1799. Goya himself called the series “Collection of prints on fantasy subjects.”

As part of this exhibition, a new translation into Russian of all Goya’s comments to the etchings of the graphic series was made. To better understand what the artist created, this series should be considered in conjunction with his comments.

Almost 180 years after the publication of Francisco Goya's graphic series, his compatriot Salvador Dali, one of the prominent representatives of the surrealism movement in the art of the twentieth century, presented his reading of the content and meaning of the etchings created by Goya. Dali perceived the sheets of “Caprichos” as something close to his own surrealist method.

Goya's cycle "Caprichos" of 41 engravings with original comments by the artist, as well as the same engravings, revised and reinterpreted by Salvador Dali, will be shown at Pushkinsky from January 24 to March 12

Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkina
January 24 - March 12, 2017
Main Building, room 31
Moscow, st. Volkhonka, 12

A collection of Goya's prints will be presented from the collection of the Pushkin Museum, and the cycle "Goya's Caprichos", created by Salvador Dali, will be presented from the collection of Boris Friedman. 19th-century prints from the original 1799 boards were made by Goya using the technique of etching with aquatint. The works of Salvador Dali were performed using the techniques of etching, drypoint and pochoir, and printing over heliogravures from Goya's original etchings.

One of the pinnacles of Francisco Goya’s graphic creativity is his creation of the “Caprichos” series of etchings. Caprichos (Italian capricci; French caprices; Spanish caprichos) is a special genre that developed in the art of Western Europe at the turn of the 16th–17th centuries, involving the creation in the visual arts, music or poetry of a series of whims, quirks or fantasies, united by some topic.

All the plots of the “Caprichos” series tell about the contemporary realities of the artist’s political and social life in Spain, which was experiencing a deep crisis at that time. Another plot of the series is the story of the artist’s happy and tragic love for Duchess Cayetana Alba. In his works, he acts as a critic of public morality, consistently revealing the hidden meaning of reality and destroying the existing foundations of the old world. Among the storylines that he develops are self-deception and pretense, female frivolity and misfortune, the metaphor of the human world as an animal, the sleep of reason and the awakening of human consciousness. Goya ridiculed Spain evilly and sarcastically: the vices of ordinary people, the hypocrisy of the nobility, court circles, the ruling couple, the church, the Inquisition.

The complex design of the graphic series of 80 etchings required a more detailed commentary. Goya himself was the first to give it. On one of the albums presented to the king by the artist, additional explanations were made with his own pen for each of the sheets. This so-called "official commentary" by Goya, from an album kept in the Prado Museum, forms the basis of most modern publications of Caprichos. As part of this exhibition, a new translation into Russian of all Goya’s comments to the etchings of the graphic series was made. To better understand what the artist created, this series should be considered in conjunction with his comments.

Almost 180 years after the publication of Francisco Goya’s graphic series, his compatriot Salvador Dali, one of the prominent representatives of the surrealism movement in the art of the twentieth century, presented his reading of the content and meaning of the etchings created by Goya. Dali perceived the sheets of “Caprichos” as something close to his own surrealist method.

Taking as a basis a series of 80 etchings by Goya, repeated in the heliogravure technique specifically for this work, the artist introduces additional characters, details and colorful elements into Goya’s images, using the techniques of drypoint, etching and pochoir. In some cases, he reinterprets the characters in Goya's engravings, in others he adds his own characters. Dali creates new meanings, giving the entire series a different look and character. By completing the background, depicting the now famous “leaking” clocks or props, the artist places Goya’s characters in his own space. Sometimes he simply follows Goya’s images, without invading either the image or the semantic component of the captions, using only coloring. So he either comments on Goya’s works, or involves his heroes in his play, and sometimes enters into dialogue with his great compatriot.

A fundamental feature of Dali’s work with the graphic series is the replacement of all the names of the images given by Goya with comments made by Dali himself, which not so much explain the plots as set another line of their interpretation, complementing Goya’s fantasies with Dali’s surreal visions, which enter almost two centuries later into a kind of dialogue with the great predecessor. The exhibition and the accompanying publication contain for the first time a translation into Russian of the names given by Dali. To the riddle of Francisco Goya, Salvador Dali added his own.

Like Goya's Caprichos, Dali's series begins with a self-portrait of Goya. Dali places it in a reduced form inside the figure of a sphinx lying against the backdrop of a desert landscape. A box of winds opens from the body of the sphinx, and a profile black silhouette in an ancient Spanish costume looms in the background. The sphinx's eyes are closed, which enhances the impression of sleep into which Dali immerses all the images. For him, the Sphinx symbolizes mystery and is solved in the artist’s traditional manner: smooth tonal elaboration creates a watercolor effect, the contours of the figure are outlined by the finest line; his eyes are closed - he is sleeping, he is dreaming about how this world is born in Goya’s head.

The exhibition is accompanied by a large lecture program. Leading foreign experts were invited to participate in it. Virginia Albaran Martin, a member of the painting department of the Prado Museum (Madrid), and a professor at the Department of Art History at the University of Madrid, will talk about the history of Francisco Goya’s creation of the “Caprichos” series of etchings. Of great interest to art lovers will be a meeting with the famous French printer, author of several publications on printing techniques, Nicole Rigal. Nicole Rigal printed etchings for seven editions of Salvador Dali's livre d'artiste and was well acquainted with him. She also printed the series of engravings "Caprichos" by Dali exhibited at the exhibition, about which she is scheduled to give a separate lecture. An agreement was also reached to come to Moscow during works of the exhibition of the Spanish writer and philosopher, professor Ignacio Gómez de Liaño, who was close friends with Dali, the author of a book of memoirs about the artist. During his visit to the Museum, he will talk about his meetings with Dali. Specific dates of planned events can be found on the Museum’s website.

The opening of the exhibition coincides with the release of a separate publication “Caprichos. Goya. Dali." A book presentation will take place during the exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition will meet with employees of the publishing house, the author, and a discussion will take place with the participation of leading Russian and foreign experts.

Chamber exhibition "Caprichos. Goya and Dali", which opened at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, combined etchings by Goya from the “Caprichos” series (1793-1799) from the museum’s own collection and engravings by Salvador Dali, created by him on the basis of this famous series in 1973-1977, from the collection of Boris Friedman.

The curators of the project, Boris Friedman and Polina Kozlova (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), presented 41 engravings from each series (they initially consisted of 80 sheets), and also took care of a new translation of Goya’s brief comments and titles of works. The translation, by the way, was carried out by a wonderful Spanish scholar and translator Natalya Malinovskaya, known, in particular, for her translations of poems and manifestos by Salvador Dali.

The meeting of two famous Spaniards in a museum hall is of more than just academic interest. Moreover, thanks not so much to the surrealist of the twentieth century, but due to the expression of Goya and the consonance of his etchings with the present century.

Obviously, Dali's appeal to Goya's Caprichos is neither a duel nor a dialogue. If in the 19th century the romantic Hoffmann could note that he “would like to work in the manner of Callot,” an artist of the 17th century, then the egocentric Dali could hardly even have such a thought. He worked in one manner - his own, appropriating and reinterpreting the fantasy images of his predecessor. He does not particularly care about “modernizing” the “caprichos” of the 18th century, although he is not averse to adding either a telephone handset with wires leading to a parrot speaker, or a reference to his friend Buñuel’s film “Un Chien Andalou”... But in general, updating clearly not his job. He willingly plays his favorite game, shifting accents, turning the background into figures, be it a winged sphinx or a sharp-nosed profile with drops of snot, turning a grotesque wedding procession into an appetizing dish (“What a sacrifice!” Dali transforms into “What cherries”)... Naturally, he does not skimp on adding a considerable amount of eroticism, pulling out from the subconscious with the dexterity of a magician images familiar to viewers from many of his works.

But what gives Dali real pleasure is, apparently, the possibility of metamorphoses that create a bridge from Goya to Velazquez, say... One of Goya’s most tragic etchings “From that dust...” and “Nothing could be done,” which paint a picture of preparations for an auto-da-fé from Holy Inquisition - with the public reading of the verdict and the repentance of the unfortunate woman accused of heresy, in Dali’s interpretation, it begins to resemble Velazquez’s “Surrender of Breda” (“Spears”)... And Goya’s mockery of the local Plyushkin, clutching his wallet, will turn into a bargaining of art dealers with collector... At the same time, the dodgers appeal to the authority of...Dali himself: “Dali said that Cezanne is no match for Millet.”

At the same time, the “appropriation” of Goya’s “Caprichos” by Salvador Dali seems to be far from the famous gesture of Duchamp, who turned the Mona Lisa into a “woman with a beard” and mustache. Instead of the elements of Dadaism, Dali has a system built with almost mathematical precision. This rationality is also emphasized by the technique of execution. Having “returned” the relief print of Goya’s paper etching onto a copper or zinc plate, Dali works as an engraver, adding the details he needs, and then adding color on the prints. No, he is not Duchamp, not Warhol, he is Dali...

It is clear that Dali’s engravings do not make sense to be considered as “conductors” to Goya’s work. Dali does not lead to Goya, but rather leads away from the artist, whose “Caprichos” series, conceived as a harsh social satire on contemporary Spain, had a long-suffering fate. “A collection of prints on fantasy subjects” went on sale in 1799 (as the newspaper “Diario de Madrid” reported on February 6, 1799 - in a perfume shop, at a price of 320 reais for a series of 80 prints). But it was on sale for only four days - the Inquisition came out against the artist. Of the 240 prints, only 27 managed to be sold. Goya was saved by the king’s intercession and his position as a court artist. In addition, he made a wise diplomatic step - he presented both the sheets and the boards as a gift to the king, providing them with his own explanations. And since the artist himself left for France in 1824, XIX knew his “Caprichos” mainly from French prints.

It would be extremely interesting to find out at the exhibition how Goya’s “Caprichos” were perceived, for example, in Russia. For comparison, we can recall the elegant 2015 exhibition at the In Artibus Foundation “I would like to work in the manner of Callot,” which rhymed Jacques Callot’s engravings with the German romantics, especially Hoffmann, and our Oberiuts...

A comparison of these two exhibitions suggests itself, if only because for Goya the experience of Callot’s “Caprichos” was clearly very important.

For the current exhibition of two great Spaniards at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin has an excellent educational program planned. The first lecture is today. Consider this the best trip to Spain for your student holidays - with Goya and Dali.

Do you swear to respectfully obey senior commanders and mentors, clean attics, knit nets, shake a tambourine, howl, squeal, whistle, soar, fry, boil, suck, blow and rush at the first sign where you are ordered?

I swear!

So you became a witch! Get started!

Virginia Albaran Martin, a member of the painting department of the Prado Museum (Madrid), and a professor at the Department of Art History at the University of Madrid, will talk about the history of Francisco Goya’s creation of the “Caprichos” etchings.

Among the lecturers who come to Moscow, in particular, is the Spanish writer and philosopher, Professor Ignacio Gomez de Liaño, who was friends with Dali. He will share his memories of his meetings with Dali.

Lectures are promised by Nicole Rigal, who printed etchings for seven editions of Salvador Dali's livre d'artiste and was well acquainted with him. She runs one of the oldest printing workshops in France. The Atelier Regal workshop was founded by her grandfather Edmond Rigal. The same one who in 1920 's he printed all the publications of the famous artist and animator Alexander Alekseev.

Also coming is the director of the Picasso House Museum in Malaga, José Maria Luna Aguilar, who will talk about how the plots of Goya’s “Caprichos” are connected with the historical situation in Spain at the end of the 18th century.

The exposition located

in one small hall of the Pushkin Museum, is attractive precisely because of its intimacy, which allows you to examine in detail the works of two great Spaniards and read into the comments that accompany them.

The exhibition opens with a self-portrait of Goya - a melancholy man of about fifty in a top hat is depicted in profile and does not look at the viewer, fatigue is felt in his gaze. Dali places his image in the space of a bare sandy desert, and it is not immediately apparent that the dunes on which Goya’s self-portrait rests are actually the curves of the sphinx’s body. The eyes of the mythical creature are closed: he sleeps and dreams - in which images generated by the imagination of two artists are mixed. In such an environment, Goya’s gaze seems to change, acquiring an expression of childish curiosity and even a little slyness.

The exhibition consisted of 82 works: 41 engravings by Goya from the museum’s collections and the same number of corresponding engravings by Dali from the collection of collector Boris Friedman, who acted as the curator of the project. Dali’s graphic cycle and the original “Caprichos” are separated by almost two centuries, but placed in a single space, they look especially relevant, confirming the old truth: by and large, a person does not change. And social problems, despite the change of political regimes, remain the same.

“Convinced that the criticism of human vices and errors, although it seems to be the field of oratory and poetry, can also be the subject of painting,” wrote the newspaper “Diario de Madrid” on February 6, 1799, announcing the start of sales of “Caprichos” by Francisco Goya, - the artist chose for his work from the many extravagances and absurdities inherent in any civil society, as well as from common prejudices and superstitions legitimized by custom, ignorance or self-interest, those that he considered especially suitable for ridicule and at the same time for exercising his imagination "

The fate of the series of etchings “Caprichos”, on which Goya had been working since 1793, turned out to be dramatic - the caustic satire on the foundations of society and human vices could not please those in power. This stone alone is worth something in the garden of the king and the courtiers: “High life is a carnival, where everything is hidden by a mask. Everything here is foreign: a dress from someone else’s shoulder, someone else’s voice, a mask instead of a face. Here everyone pretends, everyone lies and no one recognizes anyone.” At the request of the Inquisition, all sheets were confiscated a few days after they went on sale, and the artist was forced to apologize to King Charles IV, to whom he also handed over all the etching boards along with unsold printed copies and handwritten pages with his comments.

Salvador Dali worked on his “Caprichos” from 1973 to 1977. Taking the etchings of his compatriot as a basis, he either introduces additional characters and elements into them, or completes the background, but sometimes he limits himself only to coloring and new signatures. Thus, to one of the most famous images, “The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters,” Dali, in addition to color, adds the symbol of yin and yang, clearly referring to Freud, whose theory so fascinated the surrealists. Sometimes the new captions sound ironic, clearly trying to reduce Goya’s accusatory pathos. For example, a scene depicting a young woman pushing away a beggar woman is indicated in the original with the words “God forgive her. It was her mother." Dali continues: “And also her father.” Some of Dalí's signatures take the original plot on a different plane, turning ridicule into creepy horror, as in the scene "Who is enchanted here?", which Dalí calls "Who is being raped."

Each pair of engravings contains several meanings and possible interpretations, which are revealed precisely in the dialogue of these works. In the museum context, this semantic game becomes even more complex, forcing the viewer to constantly balance on the line between the past, present and future.

Details from Posta-Magazine
The exhibition runs until March 12
Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkina (main building, hall 31), st. Volkhonka, 12
http://www.arts-museum.ru/

Starting tomorrow, kilometer-long queues are expected around the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. An exhibition of works by Salvador Dali opens there. 25 canvases and graphics were delivered from Spain - from the artist’s theater-museum. Especially for this exhibition, Pushkinsky came up with a new way to design the exhibition.

In recent days, behind a heavy curtain, the famous staircase of the Pushkin Museum has been carefully hidden from visitors. They should see it only as another artist, Boris Messerer, intended it for the Salvador Dali exhibition. For example, costumes should float in the air, greeting guests. And the director of the museum, Irina Antonova, is also worried: whether people will hit them with their heads.

It’s not for nothing that Boris Messerer is called the set designer of the exhibition, although he is not preparing a performance at all. It’s just that the outrageous Salvador Dali turned any of his public appearances into a theatrical performance. So this time it is important to involve all his fans in one big game.

Huge eggs and papier-mâché pyramids were also placed with a special meaning. Repeating the decoration of the cornice of the Dali Museum-Theater in the Spanish city of Figueres. There the artist exhibited for the first time, and there, right under the floor of the museum, he was buried. Having borrowed 25 paintings and 90 graphic works for the exhibition here, Pushkinsky was, first of all, confident in their authenticity. After all, Dali created this collection personally. But to make the paintings feel at home in a foreign environment, casts of ancient sculptures were moved from the neighboring rooms. After all, they were so often a source of inspiration for Dali.

To prevent visitors from asking unnecessary questions, say, “What does the Venus de Milo have to do with it?”, the sculpture was positioned in such a way that the gaze from it immediately fell on the sketch for the painting “The Hallucinogenic Torrero.” And it’s even difficult to count how many times Dali used the recognizable silhouette of the famous statue in this work.

In dialogue with Diego Velazquez and his painting "Las Meninas", Salvador Dali once created his own masterpiece. “Self-Portrait with Raphael’s Neck” is perhaps the most famous of Dali’s works brought to Moscow. Often, in order to convey the meaning of what he saw in a dream, the artist came up with equally incredible names. "Napoleon's nose, transformed into a pregnant woman who walks like a sad shadow among ancient ruins." Or “Fifty abstract paintings that at a distance of two meters form three portraits of Lenin as a Chinese, and from six meters they turn into the head of a royal tiger.” But now it’s clear why the painting “Strangeness” was at one time considered to be pandering to the taste of the crowd.

"A fashionable silhouette, a lady's dress in the fashion of the 1935s, in which this picture was painted. The sofa is in colors that were just fashionable in that era. And, of course, the zipper, which gradually migrated from jackets just in those years pilots and motorists for handbags and outfits,” explains Alexey Petukhov, curator of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin.

In addition to graphics, including many illustrations for Don Quixote, unique photographs from the family album of Salvador and Gala Dali will also be shown for the first time. Almost all her life, born Elena Dyakonova, she was the wife and muse of the craziest of the geniuses of the 20th century. Her face can be found in almost every painting of his. And this tiny portrait of Gala with two lamb ribs on her shoulder is a special declaration of love.

“Gala, according to Dali, was a very appetizing woman. He said: you just want to eat her all the time. And in order to convey this passion for her, this image, he depicted her along with lamb ribs,” says a representative of the Gala Foundation - Salvador Dali" (Spain) Irene Sibien.

All these treasures will remain in Moscow under special conditions. The exhibition halls are noticeably cooler than others. And curators and guides admire the glass, which does not reflect at all, making even the smallest details clearly visible, each of which undoubtedly hides the secret of the great Salvador Dali.