Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), the pivotal figure in Spanish art between Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973),  was a multifaceted artist whose works encompass a wide variety of styles and subject matter. Thanks to his 60-year career and enormous catalogue of works done in different styles—Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classic, Romantic, early Expressionist and Surrealist—Goya is often referred to as the last Old Master and the first Modernist.

Today, Goya is best known for a series of profoundly somber and disturbing late-career paintings and etchings (The Black Paintings; The Disasters of War), none of which were viewed by the public in his lifetime.  Referencing a broad spectrum of paintings, etchings and drawings across the long arc of Goya’s career, this lecture, "Francisco de Goya: Light and Shadow," reveals him to be as much an artist of vision and light as one of shadow and darkness, while at the same time confirming his status as a protean and pivotal figure in the history of Western art.

Roy Kerr received his Ph.D. in Spanish Language and Hispanic Literatures from Penn State, and spent most of his academic career at Rollins College. At Rollins he Chaired the Foreign Language Department, founded and directed the Hispanic Studies Program, and held the Alexander Weddell Endowed Chair as “Professor of the Americas.”

In the 1980’s and 90’s, he directed numerous study abroad programs in Madrid for Rollins students and faculty. He has been an NEH Postdoctoral Fellow, a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil, and a Hispanic Studies Visiting Lecturer at universities in Australia and New Zealand.