Author Description

"The Fondation Beyeler presents one of the most significant exhibitions ever devoted to Francisco de Goya (1746-1828). Goya was one of the last great court artists and the first forerunner of modern art. He was both a painter of impressive portraits and an inventor of enigmatic, highly personal pictorial worlds. It is precisely from these irreducible contradictions that Goya's art draws its magical fascination. Spanning more than 60 years, Goya's career covers a period ranging from Rococo to Romanticism. He depicted saints and criminals, witches and demons, pushing open the gate to realms in which the boundaries between reality and fantasy become blurred. In his art, Goya shows himself a keen observer of the drama unfolding between reason and irrationality, dreams and nightmares. The exhibition brings together around 70 paintings and more than 100 masterful drawings and prints, inviting viewers on a journey into the beautiful and the unfathomable. For the first time, seldom seen paintings from Spanish private collections are shown alongside key works from the most prestigious European and American museums and private collections." --Gallery's website