Goya’s Horrific Black Paintings Brought To Life

Adrian Searle at The Guardian:

Among the most enigmatic works of his turbulent life, they now occupy a single room at Madrid’s Prado museum, whose collection they entered in 1881. Why Goya painted them, and even if they were all originally painted by the artist himself; how much he revised and changed them, and how much they were further altered by early restorers – all that remains a matter of debate. There is also conjecture about his house (which got its name not from Goya, but from the previous occupant), which was demolished in 1909.

A few steps away from the Black Paintings takes us 200 years into the future, to a room of similar proportions, temporarily converted into a small cinema by the French artist Philippe Parreno, where he is showing La Quinto del Sordo, a film first seen at a Goya exhibition in Switzerland last year. Now it is paired with the paintings that provide its subject. Typically of this complex artist, there is more to it. Several times a day, the lights go down and a cellist takes a seat beside the screen, reading a statement by Spanish composer Juan Manuel Artero before beginning to play.

more here (thanks Brooks).