Capricho No. 1: Curtis Taylor, visual artist
Original title: Francisco Goya y Lucientes, painter
In 1799 Goya published Los Caprichos, a series of 80 prints. These prints explored, among other things, the whimsies, the eccentricities, and foibles of 18th century Spanish society. As a fellow political satirist and printmaker, it is not hard to understand why I have always admired his work.
Like many, I feel the current socio-political environment promoted by Donald Trump and his enablers necessitated some sort of response; one that’s ironic, pointed and at times full of sanctimonious contempt. This series was born from that desire to provide satirical commentary and maybe, just maybe, say a voter or 2 as we march toward the 2020 elections.
I was interested in addressing two notions in this series.
The first is addressing the popular expression “There is a tweet for everything.” Specifically, that almost any position Donald Trump has taken as President of the United States can be contradicted by previous tweets. Sometimes these contradictions and hypocrisies made me scream in frustration.
The second notion I wanted to explore and one that developed the visual narrative of this project was essentially WWGD (What would Goya do?). I like to envision a contemporary Goya sitting down at his computer and doing some digital collaging and then turning around and sharing it with the world via social media. For this series, I indevoured to faithfully reproduce the original compositions using contemporary figures by Los Caprichos – the compositions are recreated from the original prints and the titles of each print are related tweets from the @RealDonaldTrump. The tone of the visual narrative is inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 that featured rough digital collaging and historical obfuscation echoing Winston Smith’s efforts to recreate historical “fake news” for a totalitarian Big Brother.
After a couple of years of mulling this project over in the comfy confines of deepest thoughts, I set out to recreate Los Caprichos. I began this project with a fair amount of enthusiasm that was soon zapped from me. The research for this project required many hours of reading some of the most ignorant, dishonest, and obscene tweets and comments history has ever known. I could only endure 20 or 30 minutes a day towards the end and set timers to remind me to pull away before my hope for humanity be lost. Taking aim at Trump and his enabler/supporters and their willingness to accept “fake news” was my highest priority throughout the whole process.
The series has been produced in a social media friendly format equipped with hashtags and welcomes any likes or shares you see fit.
#loscapricho #loscaprichos #goya2020 #franciscogoya #goya #collage #digitalcollage #politicalsatire #whatwouldgoyado #WWGD
Original title: Francisco Goya y Lucientes, painter
In 1799 Goya published Los Caprichos, a series of 80 prints. These prints explored, among other things, the whimsies, the eccentricities, and foibles of 18th century Spanish society. As a fellow political satirist and printmaker, it is not hard to understand why I have always admired his work.
Like many, I feel the current socio-political environment promoted by Donald Trump and his enablers necessitated some sort of response; one that’s ironic, pointed and at times full of sanctimonious contempt. This series was born from that desire to provide satirical commentary and maybe, just maybe, say a voter or 2 as we march toward the 2020 elections.
I was interested in addressing two notions in this series.
The first is addressing the popular expression “There is a tweet for everything.” Specifically, that almost any position Donald Trump has taken as President of the United States can be contradicted by previous tweets. Sometimes these contradictions and hypocrisies made me scream in frustration.
The second notion I wanted to explore and one that developed the visual narrative of this project was essentially WWGD (What would Goya do?). I like to envision a contemporary Goya sitting down at his computer and doing some digital collaging and then turning around and sharing it with the world via social media. For this series, I indevoured to faithfully reproduce the original compositions using contemporary figures by Los Caprichos – the compositions are recreated from the original prints and the titles of each print are related tweets from the @RealDonaldTrump. The tone of the visual narrative is inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 that featured rough digital collaging and historical obfuscation echoing Winston Smith’s efforts to recreate historical “fake news” for a totalitarian Big Brother.
After a couple of years of mulling this project over in the comfy confines of deepest thoughts, I set out to recreate Los Caprichos. I began this project with a fair amount of enthusiasm that was soon zapped from me. The research for this project required many hours of reading some of the most ignorant, dishonest, and obscene tweets and comments history has ever known. I could only endure 20 or 30 minutes a day towards the end and set timers to remind me to pull away before my hope for humanity be lost. Taking aim at Trump and his enabler/supporters and their willingness to accept “fake news” was my highest priority throughout the whole process.
The series has been produced in a social media friendly format equipped with hashtags and welcomes any likes or shares you see fit.
#loscapricho #loscaprichos #goya2020 #franciscogoya #goya #collage #digitalcollage #politicalsatire #whatwouldgoyado #WWGD