As you may know, last weekend the Goya Awards gala was held. Many of you might be wondering: what do a film awards ceremony and the world of printmaking have in common?
Goya: from printmaking to cinema
First of all, because Goya is one of the great figures in printmaking. His technical, stylistic, and thematic innovations made him the first contemporary painter, and he mastered all the printmaking techniques of his time: etching, aquatint, and drypoint. However, these were not the reasons the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences chose Goya’s head as the award; rather, it was because his name has two syllables, following the attempt to emulate other major international film awards like the Oscars (USA) or the César (France). The printmaker’s name (among other artistic facets) was proposed at the Assembly and ultimately chosen by the artistic director Ramiro Gómez, who recalled that Goya “had a pictorial concept close to cinema and that several of his most representative works had an almost sequential treatment.” Since March 17, 1987, Goya’s head has occupied a place on the shelves of the best filmmakers, according to the Academy of Cinema.
“DECORADO,” our favorite winner
We were surprised to discover the winner for Best Animated Short, a darkly surreal fable about the meaning of existence, blending artistic references as diverse as *The Truman Show*, underground comics, *The Seventh Seal*, and Goya’s prints. As one character describes it: “The world is a wonderful set, but it has a deplorable cast.” The project was directed by Alberto Vázquez and undoubtedly leaves no one indifferent, either for its theme or its technique.
For four months, Alberto worked alone on the short film’s preproduction. “The comic didn’t have this 19th-century printmaking visual style it has now,” he explains, “but I really liked the possibility of mixing underground-style characters with backgrounds full of textures inspired by classical prints by 19th-century authors like Gustave Doré. This intense contrast between figures and background helped reinforce one of the story’s central themes—the world as a set—while also looking visually striking.” […] (Excerpt from an interview with Alberto Vázquez, by 3D Wire)
“Before moving into animation, I worked in press illustration and comics,” Alberto continues. “It’s a field with narrative possibilities I really like because it lets you create a personal universe with very few resources. My main influences come from underground comics, which is how I learned to draw, as well as the narrative of authors like Jim Woodring or the Norwegian Jason,” author of the comic *Un Paso en Falso*, published by Astiberri in Spain. Other references for the short film included illustrators like Roland Topor, known for his work as art director on *La Planète Sauvage* (*Fantastic Planet*), and Saul Steinberg, another artist interested “especially in concepts and ideas.”
As press manufacturers, we enjoy seeing how ancient techniques like printmaking continue to inspire great artists, from Goya to Picasso, through Andy Warhol and Tàpies, and into the present with others such as Alberto Vázquez or Tomás Hijo (owner of one of our machines), who combine these traditional methods with contemporary techniques to make printmaking a unique way of seeing life, imbuing their characters and fantastical worlds with magic. From here, we pay them this small tribute.
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