In the manner of Francisco Goya
Spanish, 1746–1828
The Group Chat, 2026
Oil on plaster, transferred to canvas
123 × 164 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.4.4
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A circle of hooded figures leans over one glowing screen in a dark field, and the screen turns their faces green. Most of them gasp. One, at the right, has turned and is grinning, which is worse. Goya's witches gathered round a goat. These gather round a tablet, and the goat is whoever they are talking about. There is always one who looks up to check you saw.
The brief
A circle of hooded figures leaning together over a single glowing screen in a dark field, faces lit green from below, one of them looking out at the viewer and grinning. Late Spanish Romantic oil painting from the black-paintings period, near-monochrome browns, blacks and dirty whites with one passage of blood red, figures with gaping mouths and wide eyes emerging from darkness, coarse dragged brushwork and palette-knife smears, unstable composition, grotesque satire and pity in equal measure, muddy matte surface with cracks. Flat frontal reproduction of the painting, the canvas fills the frame edge to edge, even lighting, no frame, no wall, no text.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
