A total of 16 works will be loaned to the city by the Prado Museum, along with essential archival documents. They will be displayed in an unprecedented exhibition, announced several months ago, which will occupy La Lonja from April to August 2027. "200 Years with Goya" will feature works never before seen in Zaragoza, including "A Garrochista", "Dead Birds" and "The Drunkard", as well as works such as "The Colossus", which will return to the city more than three decades after it was last exhibited there.
The significance of the exhibition, which will arrive at La Lonja a year before the Bicentennial celebration, lies precisely in the fact that nothing like it has ever been done before. Goya’s work will be examined not only through art history but also through disciplines such as photography, literature, cinema, photography, popular culture and even fashion. In addition to the loans from the Prado Museum, a total of 130 works by other artists, including Picasso, Mariano Fortuny, Antonio Saura and Ignacio Zuloaga, will travel to the Aragonese capital.
"Generally, four works are loaned for an exhibition, while the Prado Museum is lending us 16. That is why I want to thank the museum for its generosity in making this loan, as well as the curator of the La Lonja exhibition, Pedro Martínez Plaza, for his work. We are going to exhibit works that have never been in the city and that had never left the Prado. As a result, they will generate tremendous excitement among art lovers," Mayor Natalia Chueca explained.
THE ANTICIPATION
The mayor also praised the efforts and work of Zaragoza City Council’s Culture team for “anticipating” the official Bicentennial celebrations. "We will be the city that fires the starting gun for this anniversary with a first exhibition a year beforehand. If we held it in 2028 itself, we would not have been able to include Goya’s work because all the institutions that own it will be exhibiting it, quite logically," she explained.
The exhibition "200 Years with Goya" will be open from April 16 to August 8, 2027, and, like all exhibitions at this venue, admission will be free. "This is a historic alliance with the Prado Museum, and Zaragoza will not only pay tribute to Goya but also offer an unprecedented cultural experience in Spain. It is a source of pride to see the home of Spanish art dedicate itself to the city where our most universal painter grew up, making possible the greatest celebration ever held about his history," she concluded.
