Goya's 275th Birthday Brings Aragon into the Spotlight

The 275th anniversary of Goya's birth has become an opportunity to bring the underpopulated county of Campo de Belchite and the village of Fuendetodos back to the map.

The Guardian recently reported on the "Territorio Goya" project, which aims to exploit the 200th anniversary of Goya's Black Paintings to "stem the decline of a region where there are just 4.8 inhabitants per square kilometre". In this article, which is suitable for C1 students and above, you can come across words like: to summon, to stem [the decline], to devour, a witches's sabbath, to drown, a printmaker, [to be] appalled, slumber, to cling [to the map], a curator, a resident, [annual] income, a profound pull, to empower, the plight [of Campo de Belchite], the hollowed [Spain], a demographic challenge, [to be] squeezed, to have a project underway, to mark [the 275th anniversary], demolished, [to be] stripped out, canvas, a mock-up [image], to commission, to reintepret, the reworked [paintings], an installation, a casualty, boom-and-bust [cycle], the [perfect] venue, artworks, [to be] displayed, to make the pilgrimage, [the project] is about [ensuring that...], to receive [his] dues, to undertake [a commission], Follies [series], rough [landscape], to be keenly aware of, a lighthouse.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York is currently offering the exhibition Goya's Graphic Imagination, which, according to The New York Times, "offers a vital tonic from an artist with (to our eyes) all the right political commitments: horrified by violence, revolted by unearned priviledge, standing up for freedom and knowledge and rights for all". If you want to read a review of the exhibition catalogue written by Mark MacDonald, you can follow this link to Enfilade, the blog of the Historians of Eighteenth Century Art & Architecture (HECAA) society. This text is suitable for C2 students and above.

Finally, you can also watch this 20':24" video below, which is a virtual tour of the exhibition with subtitles in Spanish, so, it can be accessible to C1 students and above. The video is a fantastic visual lesson on Goya's artistic production by the curator of the exhibition, Mark MacDonald.

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