Western Morning News (Saturday)
Inspired by the satirical etchings of Spain’s Goya
Frank Ruhrmund examines Sarah Seddon’s visual metaphors at her Polzeath exhibition
Although the Spanish painter and etcher Francisco de Goya painted portraits, notably The Family of Charles 1V in 1800, he is better known now for his works that expressed his reaction to the French occupation of Spain, 1808-14, his painting The Shootings of May 3rd, 1808, and his set of etchings The Disasters of War that depicted the cruelty and horror of it all. Unafraid to point his finger at such barbarity or the political corruption and social ills of the time, he was to influence such artists as Manet and Delacroix, not forgetting, as she reminds us, also the Devoran-based artist Sarah Seddon. One who studied at University College, Falmouth, where she gained a BA (Hons) degree in fine art, since her graduation she has exhibited widely throughout Cornwall, and has gained a considerable reputation and following for her etchings and aquatints. The last artist to figure in the series 2020 Featured Artist at the Whitewater Gallery, Polzeath, she is now exhibiting there with Twenty Twenty, a show inspired by Goya’s Los Capricinos series of satirical etchings and aquatints made by him in 1797-98 in protest against all that was happening in his country at that time. From the corruption of the church to superstition, witchcraft and the decline of rationality, it was an enlightened tour de force critique of the foibles and follies of the society of his day.
Sarah Seddon has taken a close look at Goya’s use of allegories and his printmaking technique and, as she says, has studied the way in which he created atmosphere in his prints through his use of composition and tonal qualities, in an attempt to incorporate them in her work. Happily, she succeeds in not only paralleling his collection in spirit, but also in some cases responds directly to individual works in her series of 20 etchings that addresses our own time in history. Unlike the continuous narrative in Goya’s Los Caprichos, each of her score of etchings deals with a separate theme. Her special interest is aquatint and she has experimented with different methods of applying it such as sugar lift and pepper pot. It says everything for her fine drawing and skill that, whatever method she uses, the appeal of her aquatints remains a constant. Set in the peaceful and strife-free area of an allotment, a long way from the nightmare scenes of Goya’s savage and macabre Los Desastres de la Guerra, (1810-14), she uses visual metaphors in these etchings to expose the contemporary social and political predicaments we are facing in the 21st century. As Sarah Seddons says: “I invite viewers, whilst hopefully appreciating these images on their face value, to also take the time to contemplate these predicaments that they depict.”
■ Sarah Seddon’s exhibition Twenty Twenty can be seen at the Whitewater Gallery, Polzeath, until January 10, 2021. Admission free.