Past
Artist's Statement
Press Release
The Disasters of Peace
A visual memoir illustrated with the etchings of Francisco Goya,
Text by Larry Gaudet
Presented by Alison Smith Gallery
In association with
International Festival Of Authors, Toronto
In 1863, the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid published the first edition of The Disasters of War, a series of 80 engravings by Francisco Goya, the great Spanish artist who died forty years earlier. These works had never been seen in Goya’s lifetime, except within his circle, likely because they were too shocking, their subject matter speaking to the unspeakable realities of war. But in the many years since their first publication, the series has gained renown as a singular achievement: an epic fusion of artistic innovation and uncompromised truth-telling.
Goya’s series is the inspiration for The Disasters of Peace, an illustrated memoir designed as an installation by Canadian author Larry Gaudet. The 80 chapters in the work -- one for each etching in the Goya series -- are expressed in a voice closer in style to a song lyric, or prose poem, rendered for the attention-deficit sensibility. None of the chapters is longer than 300 words. The installation takes the form of 80 prints, each featuring a Goya etching above a Gaudet text.
The Goya etchings reproduced come from an edition of these etchings owned by Alison Smith Gallery. The gallery edition of Goya’s etchings will also be on display.
The show opens with an artist reception/ performance on October 20 and runs until December 10, 2011ß. The memoir is Gaudet’s sixth book project
More information: Please contact Alison Smith at info@alisonsmithgallery.ca, or call 416.516.8859.
A visual memoir illustrated with the etchings of Francisco Goya,
Text by Larry Gaudet
Presented by Alison Smith Gallery
In association with
International Festival Of Authors, Toronto
In 1863, the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid published the first edition of The Disasters of War, a series of 80 engravings by Francisco Goya, the great Spanish artist who died forty years earlier. These works had never been seen in Goya’s lifetime, except within his circle, likely because they were too shocking, their subject matter speaking to the unspeakable realities of war. But in the many years since their first publication, the series has gained renown as a singular achievement: an epic fusion of artistic innovation and uncompromised truth-telling.
Goya’s series is the inspiration for The Disasters of Peace, an illustrated memoir designed as an installation by Canadian author Larry Gaudet. The 80 chapters in the work -- one for each etching in the Goya series -- are expressed in a voice closer in style to a song lyric, or prose poem, rendered for the attention-deficit sensibility. None of the chapters is longer than 300 words. The installation takes the form of 80 prints, each featuring a Goya etching above a Gaudet text.
The Goya etchings reproduced come from an edition of these etchings owned by Alison Smith Gallery. The gallery edition of Goya’s etchings will also be on display.
The show opens with an artist reception/ performance on October 20 and runs until December 10, 2011ß. The memoir is Gaudet’s sixth book project
More information: Please contact Alison Smith at info@alisonsmithgallery.ca, or call 416.516.8859.