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 divining into the medium of painting, invoking the spirit of uninhibited artistic activity.
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” (The Sleep of Reason, Linda Simon).
Making the most of the medium’s qualities, the series draw out such grotesqueries in the interplay of shadow and light, casting their resonance ever more profoundly from 200 years ago from their first printing, laying bare the same “anxiety, violence, sadism, lust, and ambivalence “ that continue to haunt our present times.
Visit Ateneo Art Gallery atLevel 2, Old Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
Museum hours are Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 7:30 pm; Saturday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm; closed Sundays and holidays. For more information, contact Ria Talamayan-Aguilar at (+632) 4266488 or via email at rtalamayan@ateneo.edu.
