Our Bartender and Goya

I see that the bartender appears to be a fan of Goya. And of his "black art."

I hope this hasn't occurred because the bartender has walked the plank behind the bar sober all these years and, remaining sober, observing the behavior of all his patrons, drunk, has lost his faith in the human race?

Watching the carryings on of drunks can have that natural reaction. I hate being sober around drunks myself. Though I was once accused of hypocrisy for feeling this way. True, drunk I accept these high jinks. Sober, I can't stand being around anyone like myself drunk. I see no contradiction.

Goya, the Bartender will agree, was a very great artist, a genius who broke many modern boundaries. His world was bleak and his vision of the world was also bleak. Though I understand he never actually saw the Napoleonic horrors he often depicts (I use the present tense because he still lives) in his paintings and engravings. But he caught them most truly, in a manner even those of us who have never actually seen war can believe in and comprehend.

So the old man painted these horrors on the walls of his house. Correct me if I'm wrong but the house went to one of his sons when he died. And the wall paintings remained there unnoticed and unprotected for another twenty or thirty years. For Goya was more or less forgotten until rediscovered long after his death.

The drawing above, by my father, is of Spanish aristocrats. I find the satire amusing.

Picasso, like many nineteenth and early twentieth century painters, greatly admired Velazquez. Though it was Velazquez's painterly aspects and general approach they admired, not so much the so-called "literary" aspects of his art: those being accurate representations of the nobility he served. Some say Impressionism first appeared in Velazquez. Well, painterly flourishes may appear in other artists. At least I've seen some. But Velazquez appears to be the painter other painters studied in that regard. Picasso was not unaware of Velazquez's talents.