El libro transparente, 1970

A key figure in Spanish Conceptual art, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina is informed by a keen awareness of language and other forms of representation, as reflected in much of his work. While in El libro transparente (1970) he constructs a text on sheets of transparent plastic with words in common use and others of his own devising, in La celosía (Jealousy, 1972) he uses a screen to project the literal transcription of La Jalousie, a novel by the French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, a leading member of the Nouveau Roman movement. In Relojes (Clocks, 1973), the object of study is the passage of time. For 365 days, Valcárcel Medina photographed different calendar-clocks that were part of the urban furniture of Madrid. Each photograph was taken on a different day thus establishing the calendar for a year. Along similar lines, in 1991 he turned a school practice as basic and universal as a cheat sheet into a device for reflection on the creative act. ‘An artwork must be so faithful to its moment in time as to become the moment itself’, writes the artist in La chuleta.