Half Clutter, 2004
Ángela de la Cruz moved to England towards the end of the Thatcher years. One day, her feelings of indignation and social impotence drove her to throw a large canvas against the wall of her studio. Since then, she has developed a practice in which the destruction of the painting becomes a pictorial act in itself. De la Cruz destroys stretchers, tears the surfaces of her predominantly monochrome canvases and presents the results as the aftermath of a struggle. Besides allowing her to express her unease about the world, such actions are a critique of the contemporary position of Western painting, using purely material means. Clutter (2003–05) features waste materials and fragments of canvases and wardrobes with which De la Cruz creates new elements. More than witnesses to an abuse or accident, these are painting-objects at rest after the battle. However indignant and visceral they may appear, the works nevertheless reflect the humour and irony characteristic of this artist.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Half Clutter
- Registration number:
- 5780
- Artist:
- Cruz, Ángela de la
- Date created:
- 2004
- Date acquired:
- 2019
- Status:
- On display
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
- Object type:
- Sculpture
- Media:
- Oil on canvas and wood
- Dimensions:
- 30 x 220 x 110 cm (height x width x depth)
- Room:
- Meier Building, Level 1
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Work purchased thanks to Agrolimen
- Copyright:
- © Ángela de la Cruz, VEGAP, Barcelona
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
If you need a high resolution image of the work, you must submit an image loan request.