Francisco de Goya: Prophet of Modernism.

19 Oct 2005-8 Jan 2006. This is Austrias first monograph exhibition dedicated to the great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos 1746 - Bordeaux 1828). Roughly 70 paintings and 35 drawings and graphic works encompass all the key phases in Goyas artistic development. Many of the works come from Madrids Prado museum, which houses the largest collection of Goyas art, and other pieces are on loan from American and other European museums. Goya was a state artist whose portraits of the powerful and their wives tellingly reveal the decadence and despotism of the Bourbon kings of Spain, as seen in the portraits of King Carlos IV and his wife, Maria Luisa. However, he also painted scenes depicting the horror and brutality of war, lunatic asylums and prisons in an expressive realistic style far ahead of his time. His art led him into conflict with the Spanish Inquisition and the despotic King Ferdinand VII, and in 1824 he left for France. He died in Bordeaux at the age of 82. The exhibition, which is hosted in collaboration with the Berlin Staatliche Museen, includes the famous pinturas negras painted for his country house, the Quinta del Sordo. Admission 10, concessions 7.50. Tues-Sun 10.00-18.00, Thurs 10.00-21.00.