Hispanic Society of New York to Launch Goya Research Center

The Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York has announced the establishment of a Goya Research Center within its Washington Heights premises, aiming to advance scholarship on Francisco Goya (1746–1828) ahead of the bicentennial of his death in 2028. Director Guillaume Kientz, a former Louvre curator of Spanish and Latin American art, noted the scarcity of contemporary Goya research, especially in the United States, and assembled an advisory committee including Patrick Lenaghan (Hispanic Society), Dorothy Mahon and David Pullins (Met), Xavier F. Salomon (Frick Collection), John Marciari (Morgan Library & Museum), Lisa Small (Brooklyn Museum), and independent scholars Janis Tomlinson and Susan Grace Galassi. The center will operate on an annual budget of $200,000, initially focusing on Goya works in New York museums: the Hispanic Society holds four paintings, 13 drawings, and 800 prints; the Met has over 500 works; and the Frick and Brooklyn Museum have smaller collections. These will form a virtual museum for technical analysis and provenance research, particularly on uncertain attributions. A symposium on American collecting of Goya is planned for fall/winter 2024–2025, and a year of exhibitions across the city is expected in 2028. Kientz aims to later expand the center's scope to include Goya collections across the United States.