The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne presents:

“Scorn, Greed, Malevolence & Mischief: Goya’s graphic expression of emotions,” Professor Emeritus Deanna Petherbridge (University of the West of England)

Date: Monday 12 October 2015
Time: 6:15-7:45pm
Venue: Macmahon Ball Theatre, Old Arts Building, The University of Melbourne
Enquiries: Jessica Scott or +61 3 8344 5152

This presentation will examine the consummate skill with which Goya represents emotions in his late private albums and some of the print series associated with these drawings. From 1795-6 Goya borrows the figure of the bruja or witch as an historically subversive topos for portraying his disgust with a corrupt clergy, monarchy and cruel social order. As the proportions of his figures change in the album drawings so his ability to suggest subtlety of facial and bodily emotions in his brush and pen work deepens. Language also becomes more intense for Goya, isolated by his total deafness, and the texts appended to drawings and prints are variably metaphoric, playing with language/visual puns or seeming blocks to clarity of meaning. Like his drawings the titles become sparer but more esoteric, especially in his late self- imposed exile to Bordeux. The relationship between ‘speaking’ facial expressions, bodily construction, emotion and textual hints therefore become essential cross referents in approaching the powerful late works.

Deanna Petherbridge is an artist, writer and curator primarily concerned with drawing. Now Professor Emeritus, University of the West of England, Bristol she was previously Professor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art and has held other academic appointments. She has written extensively for art and architectural journals and is the author of The Primacy of Drawing: Histories and Theories of Practice, 2010 and, most recently, Witches and Wicked Bodies, 2013 the catalogue of an exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh and the British Museum, London. She has lectured and exhibited internationally and undertaken drawing residencies in various countries including Australia. A retrospective of her drawings will be held at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester 2016-7. www.deannapetherbridge.com.