Saura and Multitudes: from Goya to Munch

Abstract

From 1797 to 1997, in the evolution of a fragmentary, schematic way of representing the crowds in Spanish art from Goya to Antonio Saura —whether in painting or graphic work—, an unexpected Nordic visitor appears: Edvard Munch. In this paper I want to show that the Norwegian artist is essential for Antonio Saura to complete his way to expression through undefined crowds, treated as a whole (Multitudes series). The concept of crowds was already developed by Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Ortega (in his work The revolt of the masses,1930) or Benjamin. Thus, Edvard Munch becomes a necessary step between the work of Goya and Saura, a  step on a path that borrows concepts, ideas and images from other artists such as Ensor, Monet, Pollock, Bacon or Jorn: the moving crowd, a silently screaming mass made by undefined faces.