Goya Yo lo vi - I saw it - I saw it

Francisco de Goya, Los Caprichos, 1799, 80 Radierungen, gebunden, Blatt 38: Brabisimo! / Bravissimo! / Bravo! © Sammlung Julietta Scharf, Berlin / Dietmar Katz

"Yo lo vi" (I saw it) was the comment by Francisco de Goya on the 44th sheet of his "Desastres" from 1863. In view of the current war in Europe, the current exhibition at the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection is dedicated to the famous Spanish court painter’s Disasters of War series. It displays all four cycles, including prints from the "Caprichos" and "Desastres de la guerra", which are only available in bound books, and can be seen for the first time in their entirety as large-scale projections.

With the sale of the “Caprichos”, comprising 80 etchings and aquatints, Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) addressed a new clientele for the first time and denounced social grievances. Ten years later, in the 82-sheet cycle Desastres de la guerra (1863), he denounces the loss of reason and violence in the fight against the occupation by Napoleon's troops and the famines of the early 19th century.

The exhibition shows around three dozen original prints and all four print cycles by the artist, which also include "La Tauromaquia" (1814-1816) and "Los Disparates" (1819-1823). With his fantastic art, Goya is an important forerunner of Surrealism, which is the focus of the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection