Details

Artist: Yongbo Zhao, "Revolution", 2006 (detail)

Goya, Daumier and Zhao
Provocateurs of their time

“Profound, entertaining and well worth seeing” (Und – Das Münchner Kunstjournal, by Ruprecht Volz)

Three masters of the art of painting

Uncovering social injustice drove them to create masterpieces! This exhibition presents socio-critical works by three exceptional artists from three centuries: Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) and Yongbo Zhao (born 1964).
With adept brushstrokes, they have dared to expose the powerful of their times, publicly denouncing them through the use of astute caricatures, biting satire and an uncanny grotesqueness. Although the geographical and historical backgrounds of the three artists could not be more different, they have one thing in common: art is their weapon!

Goya and Daumier: a relentless directness

They each clear-sightedly dissected the excesses of their time: for Goya, the era of the Napoleonic occupation of Spain; for Daumier, political misdemeanours under the “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe of France and for the Chinese artist Zhao, the intrigues of our contemporary elites.
And everyone gets what’s coming to them: kings and politicians, the bourgeoisie and the clerics, the silent sufferers, thinkers and sycophants. The ruling classes and their dependents - united in a mire of greed and oppression, driven by evil demons.

“Los Caprichos”, a series of etchings in which Francisco de Goya denounced the political and social climate of his time, triggered just as much of a social scandal as the unsparing directness of the “Disasters of War” etchings, a brutal protest against the violence inflicted on the populace during the war.

The sharp political criticism in Republican newspaper cartoonist Honoré Daumier’s caricatures landed him in a Paris jail, highlighting the extraordinary impact of his work in its own time.

Zhao: monumental contemporary works

With his monumental imagery, Yongbo Zhao uncovers the global intrigues of the social elite of our times. The fable serves him here as a clever artistic strategy for the making of a universally valid and unassailable statement. Zhao, celebrated in his homeland as a state artist, thus follows the same tradition as the provocateurs Goya and Daumier.

Art history through the mirror of political art

This exhibition presents outstanding works from three of the most ruthless provocateurs in the history of art. Shocking directness, caricatures, grotesques and mythical creatures illustrate their different artistic tactics against the background of the different societies in which they lived, and live.

The works demonstrate the perpetually explosive nature and topicality of their subject matter.

Exhibits

Framed works: Francisco de Goya: 25 works from the etching series “Los Caprichos” and “The Disasters of War”
Honoré Daumier: 25 lithographs and drawings
Yongbo Zhao: approx. 38 large-format oil paintings (including his latest works), etchings and drawings
Presentation area: 700 sqm, modifiable in size

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© Exhibition concept: Susanne Flesche
The exhibition concept is based on the exhibition Provokation! (Provocation!), developed by Susanne Flesche for the Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren in 2010 and now extended to include further outstanding works.