There is something inherently sassy about painting over Goya. This series, my first exposure to the snickering intellect of Jake and Dinos Chapman, is part sacrilege and part necessity: Goya's celebrity, which like any has grown with time, makes it almost unthinkable that his works should be tampered with, but yet here it is. That act alone should be enough to secure your attention. The keen draughtsmanship and hyperattentiveness to detail will earn your respect, but it's the outright comedy of the series that will win you over. Every page is alive with irony and playfulness, and, if you look closely, absolutely brilliant dialogue.
I'm an artist--not an art critic. And while I usually go for the stuff that makes me think, it's impossible to resist stuff that makes me smile this much. Perhaps the Chapmans themselves are commenting on the modern art scene: hey, they say, quit taking all this so seriously.