Goya’s Exhibit: Los Caprichos inspires student actors

Published: October 09, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes

The Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery’s exhibit, Los Caprichos (The Caprices), is inspiring more than just the visual arts students at SUU.

The political commentary, which is portrayed through the 80 etchings, has gained the attention of a Directing I class at Southern Utah University. After the class visited the exhibit to examine the physical portrayals of the characters in the pieces, they were overtaken by their messages. Professor Peter Sham states, “We were mesmerized. What came out of the visit was quite remarkable.”

The Directing I students have decided to use the Goya images as the subjects of their upcoming class projects. Peter Sham states, “The students are being instructed to direct a scene dramatizing the two minutes which preceded the etching, ending in the final tableau. They must come up with their own costumes, set pieces and props. This project is based on our studies of "Silent Tension," so they may not have many words in it, and any words they do have MUST be in Spanish! They are also required to have a musical composition accompany the piece.”

Dean Byrnes, of the College of Performing and Visual Arts states, “It is exciting to see that the exhibit has inspired our students in all areas of their creative work.”

Los Caprichos will be open through Friday, November 11th. These etchings, along with several other series of prints executed by Goya at the turn of the 19th century, stand among the seminal masterpieces of the Romantic Movement in European art. They introduced a wide range of new printmaking techniques, and as such they have proved to be a continuing influence among printmakers ever since their publication during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is the intensely personal nature of their content -- the strange half-animal, half-human creatures, as well as the frequently monstrous human figures themselves, which fill their infinitely varied spaces -- that has had the greatest impact on subsequent generations of expressive artists.

The Braithwaite Gallery offers the campus and community an exceptional venue for well known internationally touring exhibitions as well as work by our students, faculty, and artists of Utah. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 12 noon to 7 p.m. The Braithwaite Gallery is located on the ground floor in the Braithwaite Liberal Arts Center building on the east end of the beautiful SUU campus. Admission is free. For more information contact the Gallery at 435-586-5432 or visit our website www.suu.edu/pva/artgallery
This exhibit is sponsored by the Friends of the Gallery.

The Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery is supported in part by the Utah Arts Council, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

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Contact Information:

435-586-5400
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