Working from Francisco Goya's landmark aquatint etchings Los Caprichos and the Ateneo Art Gallery’s collection of Goya's Los Disparates, also known as Los Proverbios, Manuel Ocampo and Jigger Cruz collaborate on invoking the spirit of uninhibited artistic activity in the exhibition entitled Los Desastres de la Democracia (The Disasters of Democracy) at the Ateneo Art Gallery. Capriccio or caprice, a term used to refer to works that combines elements to form a fantastical tableau, is used by Goya far beyond its whimsical denotation to comment on “the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual." Making the most of the medium’s qualities, the series of works draw out such grotesqueries in the interplay of shadow and light, casting their resonance ever more profoundly from 200 years ago since their first printing, laying bare the same “anxiety, violence, sadism, lust, and ambivalence “ that continue to haunt our present times.

Publisher:
Ateneo Art Gallery, Philippines

Publication Date:
2017

Format: 
Softcover / 8 x 8 inches / 44 pages / Color

Language:
English