Goya, Hayward Gallery, 2001

GOYA, Hayward Gallery , London SE1 through 13 May.

   Goya’s drawings from his private albums are uniquely being shown at the Hayward Gallery now : Indian ink or in crayon, these comprise 550 separate works, including those on two sides of the sheet, in eight series of which the majority were bound. Goya focusses on further areas of corruption, to include also the church and the agents of totalitarian government bodies of the time Goya himself opted for exile in France . When the oppression of the Spanish Inquisition, or the forces of Napoleon ravaging Madrid left Goya mentally seared, he could allow free rein to this private world. A famous Black Border Album as it is known allows us an insight into this demi-monde, of individual figures, where Goya’s intuitive perception of such beings moves where words cannot.