The Folio Society’s <i>Goya: Disasters of War</i> to Accompany Goya Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
London, UK, October 2014—The Folio Society (www.foliosociety.com) is delighted to announce that Goya: Disasters of War will be on display in the Learning Space of the exhibition Goya: Order and Disorder at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). This landmark exhibition is the largest retrospective of the artist to take place in America in 25 years and will be on view from October 12, 2014 to January 19, 2015.
Goya: Disasters of War is a limited edition publication from The Folio Society and is the first to reproduce Goya’s own prints of his remarkable etchings documenting his response to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the famine in Madrid and the repressive government of Ferdinand VII. Linked by Goya’s iconic handwritten captions, faithfully reproduced in this edition, it can be seen as a forerunner to the graphic novel.
This 176-page volume includes 85 illustrations and is bound in leather with hand-marbled endpapers to match the original. Each is packaged in a box set, accompanied by a hard cover commentary edition, written by Mark McDonald, previously Assistant Keeper, Old Master Prints and Spanish Drawings, at the British Museum and currently Curator of Old Master Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The fine art title will also be on display in the MFA bookstore, along with ordering information. Only 980 hand numbered copies of the book were produced. Copies can be purchased at www.foliosociety.com ($795).
“Being selected for the Learning Space of this exhibition speaks volumes about the value of our work, our curation team, and our incomparable facsimile process,” said Joe Whitlock Blundell, Production Director of The Folio Society. “We are very honoured by this prestigious placement.”
The Folio Society edition is the first to be reproduced from Goya’s proofs and bears the closest likeness to Goya’s conception of the Disasters. To achieve an exact match with the originals, four printings were employed, comprised of a pale cream to match the paper shade and three different blacks which give the intensity and tonal variety of the original prints. The antique laid paper is as close a match as possible to that used by Goya.
The Goya exhibition at the MFA features 170 paintings, prints and drawings--offering the rare opportunity to examine Goya’s powers of observation and invention across the full range of his work. Employed as a court painter by four successive rulers of Spain, Goya managed to explore an extraordinarily wide range of subjects, genres and formats.
Goya: Order and Disorder is on view in the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Gallery from October 12, 2014-January 19, 2015. The MFA is the only venue for the exhibition.
About The Folio Society
For over 65 years The Folio Society has been publishing beautiful illustrated editions of the world's greatest books. We believe that the literary content of a book should be matched by its physical form. With specially commissioned illustrations, many of our editions are further enhanced with introductions written by leading figures in their fields: novelists, journalists, academics, scientists and artists.
There are hundreds of Folio Society editions currently in print covering fiction, biography, history, science, philosophy, children's literature, humour, myths and legends and more. Exceptional in content and craftsmanship and maintaining the very highest standards of fine book production, Folio Society editions are created to last for generations.
