If you are lucky enough to be visiting Goya’s hometown (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, Spain), you are very likely to find yourself, after reading a QR code, in front of the ceramic mural under the words “The signatures of Goya in his letters and writings”.
This is a work that evokes Goya in his hometown, revealing the most personal part of the great Spanish artist. Nobody becomes what they are without a personal history and, in this case, if you are contemplating the mural, we suggest you discover the more personal side of the genius of Fuendetodos, through the letters written by the painter, many addressed to his great friend, Martín Zapater.
It is the first mural made of graphics of signatures that Goya added to his letters and writings. The original idea came from Estudio de Arte 4, working on the signatures and producing exact replicas of the rubrics and drawings he made in these letters. You will be able to see imperfections in the drawings, since these are letters, not paintings or works, which have been transferred to ceramic in the kilns of the Enrique Val Pottery in Zaragoza – in the same way as an engraving is created by a master engraver from a press in his workshop. Here drawings and replicas of the graphics have been made, with the work being made up of several elements. The work began with a visual artistic idea, uniting documentation and research, which reveals a very personal side of this figure in the history of Spain. The aim of the mural is for the author to offer the viewer the enjoyment of seeing original signatures, with intentional meanings, that give a different vision of the great Goya; to awaken within the viewer a greater desire to find out more about our most universal artist. The mural began as a graphite drawing of a design, which was then digitised and transferred onto the ceramic pieces that make up the mural of 8.4 m wide and 2 m high.
The artist kept up a very complete correspondence, especially between himself and Martín Zapater, Goya’s close friend and confidante. He expresses himself freely in his letters, explaining aspects of his life in an endearing, affectionate fashion that reveals Goya at times as a genius, a joker, deep, friendly; who keeps in contact with his childhood friends, despite his success as a highly successful and sought-after artist, living away from his home town, Zaragoza, as a painter at the royal court. His letters reveal Goya in the fullness of his temperament, with his joys, sometimes naive, and the problems he frankly admits to; because, although successful, he is not exempt from struggle, suffering, success and failure; while at the same time, revealing in his letters, the life of a public and prominent figure in the society of his time.
The mural offers us the possibility of getting to know Goya from the personal side through his graphics and drawings, observing the different stages he passed through; although these texts reveal hardly any aesthetic or technical opinions that bring us any closer to the painter’s brilliant creations; so he remains the universal artist.
If you are lucky enough to be visiting Goya’s hometown (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, Spain), you are very likely to find yourself, after reading a QR code, in front of the ceramic mural under the words “The signatures of Goya in his letters and writings”.
This is a work that evokes Goya in his hometown, revealing the most personal part of the great Spanish artist. Nobody becomes what they are without a personal history and, in this case, if you are contemplating the mural, we suggest you discover the more personal side of the genius of Fuendetodos, through the letters written by the painter, many addressed to his great friend, Martín Zapater.
It is the first mural made of graphics of signatures that Goya added to his letters and writings. The original idea came from Estudio de Arte 4, working on the signatures and producing exact replicas of the rubrics and drawings he made in these letters. You will be able to see imperfections in the drawings, since these are letters, not paintings or works, which have been transferred to ceramic in the kilns of the Enrique Val Pottery in Zaragoza – in the same way as an engraving is created by a master engraver from a press in his workshop. Here drawings and replicas of the graphics have been made, with the work being made up of several elements. The work began with a visual artistic idea, uniting documentation and research, which reveals a very personal side of this figure in the history of Spain. The aim of the mural is for the author to offer the viewer the enjoyment of seeing original signatures, with intentional meanings, that give a different vision of the great Goya; to awaken within the viewer a greater desire to find out more about our most universal artist. The mural began as a graphite drawing of a design, which was then digitised and transferred onto the ceramic pieces that make up the mural of 8.4 m wide and 2 m high.
The artist kept up a very complete correspondence, especially between himself and Martín Zapater, Goya’s close friend and confidante. He expresses himself freely in his letters, explaining aspects of his life in an endearing, affectionate fashion that reveals Goya at times as a genius, a joker, deep, friendly; who keeps in contact with his childhood friends, despite his success as a highly successful and sought-after artist, living away from his home town, Zaragoza, as a painter at the royal court. His letters reveal Goya in the fullness of his temperament, with his joys, sometimes naive, and the problems he frankly admits to; because, although successful, he is not exempt from struggle, suffering, success and failure; while at the same time, revealing in his letters, the life of a public and prominent figure in the society of his time.
The mural offers us the possibility of getting to know Goya from the personal side through his graphics and drawings, observing the different stages he passed through; although these texts reveal hardly any aesthetic or technical opinions that bring us any closer to the painter’s brilliant creations; so he remains the universal artist.
Sketch and study
Estudio de arte 4 © is the name given to the artistic endeavour created by Javier Ábrego Bonafonte’s, the author of the mural. His workshop has numerous works and details of his exhibitions: especially his participation in Art en Capital 2011 at the Grand Palais and the Carrousel exhibition, within the Louvre museum in 2009, both in the city of Paris. There are also several collections of sculptures such as Las Sombres de Goya (Goya’s Shadows, 2011) and Ensoñaciones (Dreams, 2012).
Video details of the mural