Austerity hits Goya’s art, not wars, royals

This video says about itself:

The complete series of Goya‘s Disasters of War … with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 — 28 July 1750).

Famous Spanish artist Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 — 16 April 1828) hated war, as his works show.

He opposed corrupt politicians, as his Caprichos show.

Art historians often cite Goya as an example of an artist mocking princely dynasties in his work.

Goya is said to have mocked the Spanish royal family in his portrait painting of them.

Today, 185 years after Goya’s death, the prime minister of Spain, Rajoy, and other leaders of his party, are up to their necks in corruption scandals.

They preach, and practice, austerity for the people in Spain.

They don’t practice austerity for themselves. Or for the royal family; up to its neck in scandals, like them.

They keep spending taxpayers’ money and yet more taxpayers’ money on the wars in which Spain participates. Maybe they even would like to start a new war on top of these other wars: against their European Union and NATO ally Britain, about Gibraltar.

There is no austerity in Spain for bullfighting, paid by taxpayers. There is no austerity in repression of protests.

So, though Goya died 185 years ago, the Spanish government may not like the people seeing his work now.

From The Art Newspaper:

New Goya museum left an empty shell

Spain’s austerity drive halts work in Fuendetodos, the artist’s home town

By Javier Pes and Laurie Rojas

Published online: 08 August 2013

Building work on a E7m museum celebrating the work and legacy of Goya (1746-1828) stopped abruptly in July in the small town in the north east of Spain where the artist was born. The town of Fuendetodos, which has a population of less than 170, depends on income generated by its most famous son. Around 20,000 people visit Francisco de Goya’s birth place, the Casa Natal Goya, a house-museum run by the Fundación Fuendetodos Goya in the town, which is 44km south of Zaragoza, the regional capital of Aragon.

Work began on the new museum in 2009 because the collection had outgrown the Casa Natal Goya. Mayor funders are the Provincial Government of Zaragoza and Spain’s Ministry of Culture. The Mayor of Fuendetodos, Joaquín Gimeno, says: “The [ministry], the organisation that has helped us the most to realise the museum, told us that there is no funding for museums in construction in 2013.” He says that the walls of the building, which has been designed by the Madrid-based architects Matos Castillo, are complete but “it needs to be sealed and finished inside”. He does not know when building work can resume. “The day we get funding again we will keep working on the project.” But the ministry has not given the foundation or the major any indication when this might happen.

Called the Museo del Grabado, referring to printmaking, etching and engraving, the new institution will house a collection of Goya prints including four famous series, “Los Caprichos“, “Los Desastres del Guerra”, “La Tauromaquia” and “Los Disparates“. The foundation’s 4,000-strong collection includes historic and contemporary prints that have been donationed by individuals, artists and galleries. “We have never had funding for acquisitions,” says the mayor. Meanwhile, the foundation continues running workshops and organising exhibitions. Casa Natal Goya currently features the graphic work of the British-born, French-based artist and writer John Berger and his artist son Yves Berger (until 8 September).

The mayor told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that Fuendetodos’s new museum is not an “airport without planes” stressing the strength of the collection. He was referring to the airport of Ciudad Real in La Mancha, central Spain. A symbol of municipal excess during Spain’s building boom, the “ghost” airport, where no plane has landed, is now up for auction. Meanwhile, creditors are owed millions of euros.

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• Goya and Velázquez in my delirium (fromfivetofifty.wordpress.com)
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• W.T.G.A.: Goya vs Rothko (holditnow.wordpress.com)
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