The Saint Louis Art Museum will present
Impressions of War, an exhibition featuring
The Disasters of War,
Francisco de Goya’s 80-plate contemplation of war and its aftereffects,
as well as additional series of prints by three artists whose works
equally respond to the darker side of war and its aftermath.
Organized as a counterpart to the upcoming exhibition
Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan,
Impressions of War
shows alternative approaches to the tragedies of war. The free
exhibition will be on view in galleries 234 and 235 from Aug. 5 through
Feb. 12, 2017.
Responding to the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte between 1808 and 1814,
The Disasters of War
stands as one of the major achievements in the history of European art.
Although Goya made the prints between 1810 and 1820, they were not
formally published until 1863, more than three decades after his death.
The series broke ground with the intensity of its focus on war’s
cruelties, yet the prints also shed light on the bravery of the Spanish
people on the ground in the face of foreign occupation.
The artist’s fearless and personal approach to the topic of war sets
it apart from official military imagery celebrating triumphs on the
battlefield or the deaths of great generals. Instead, some plates
concentrate on unmentionable brutality between soldiers and civilians as
evidenced by the harrowing display in
This is Worse, while others highlight the heroism of individuals, such as in
Neither do These, in which women resist sexual attacks from the enemy.
Impressions of War also includes print series by three other
artists in France, Germany, and the United States from the 17th to the
21st centuries in which the artists respond—as Goya did—on a personal
rather than an official level.
Jacques Callot produced the earliest European print series
chronicling the “miseries” of the great upheaval—largely sparked by
religious conflict—that rocked Europe during the mid-17th century,
establishing a tradition that inspired many artists after him. Callot’s
petite scenes portray in exceptional detail the deeds and misdeeds of
enlisted men and civilians during unstable times.
Max Beckmann’s portfolio
Hell scrutinizes the bloody political clashes and material hardship that afflicted Berlin in the months following World War I. In
Martyrdom,
for example, Beckmann portrays the murder of the prominent communist
leader Rosa Luxemburg, whose lifeless, outstretched body he depicts in
the form of a cross.
Daniel Heyman’s
Amman Portfolio—the most recent of the four
series—responds to the earlier series even as it departs from them.
Heyman was invited to witness interviews of Iraqi citizens who had been
detained and tortured in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and he
produced eight descriptive drypoint portraits with fragments excerpted
from the traumatic interviews.
Impressions of War is curated by
Elizabeth Wyckoff,
curator of prints, drawings, and photographs; Leah Chizek, research
assistant; and Ann-Maree Walker, senior research assistant, and
Gretchen Wagner, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.
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- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War,
1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8
inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and
Drawings 7:2015
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- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War,
1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8
inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and
Drawings 7:2015
-
- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War,
1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8
inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and
Drawings 7:2015
-
- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War,
1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8
inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and
Drawings 7:2015
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Jacques Callot, French, 1592–1635; plate 2: The Battle, 1633; etching on laid paper; sheet: 4 7/16 x 8 7/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Henry V. Putzel 497:1957
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Jacques Callot, French, 1592–1635; plate 10: The Hanging, 1633; etching on laid paper; sheet: 4 7/16 x 8 7/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Henry V. Putzel 505:1957
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- Max Beckmann, German, 1884–1950; plate 10: The Last Ones,
1919; lithograph; sheet: 32 11/16 x 22 1/2 inches; Saint Louis Art
Museum, Neumann/Frumkin Collection, purchased with funds provided by the
bequest of Morton D. May, by exchange, the bequest of Florene M.
Schoenborn in honor of her father, David May, by exchange, Emily Rauh
Pulitzer, Museum Shop Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Lester A. Crancer Jr., Phoebe
and Mark Weil, The Sidney S. and Sadie Cohen Print Purchase Fund, Mr.
and Mrs. David C. Farrell, the Julian and Hope Edison Print Fund, gift
of George Rickey, by exchange, bequest of Helen K. Baer, by exchange,
Suzanne and Jerry Sincoff, Museum Shop Fund, by exchange, gift of the
Buchholz Gallery, by exchange, Museum Purchase, by exchange, Jerome F.
and Judith Weiss Levy, bequest of Horace M. Swope, by exchange, and
funds given by Fielding Lewis Holmes through the 1988 Art Enrichment
Fund, by exchange 401:2002 © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
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Max Beckmann, German, 1884–1950; plate 4: Martyrdom, 1919;
lithograph; sheet: 23 1/4 x 33 3/4 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum,
Neumann/Frumkin Collection, purchased with funds provided by the bequest
of Morton D. May, by exchange, the bequest of Florene M. Schoenborn in
honor of her father, David May, by exchange, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Museum
Shop Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Lester A. Crancer Jr., Phoebe and Mark Weil,
The Sidney S. and Sadie Cohen Print Purchase Fund, Mr. and Mrs. David C.
Farrell, the Julian and Hope Edison Print Fund, gift of George Rickey,
by exchange, bequest of Helen K. Baer, by exchange, Suzanne and Jerry
Sincoff, Museum Shop Fund, by exchange, gift of the Buchholz Gallery, by
exchange, Museum Purchase, by exchange, Jerome F. and Judith Weiss
Levy, bequest of Horace M. Swope, by exchange, and funds given by
Fielding Lewis Holmes through the 1988 Art Enrichment Fund, by exchange
404:2002 © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG
Bild-Kunst, Bonn