Francesc Abad: ‘I refused to pick up a paintbrush again’ Catalan Conceptual Artists in the MACBA Collection (2)

During the sixties and seventies, the body entered the field of artistic exploration as an element of nature. Catalan artists were no exception, as evidenced by the early works of Francesc Abad who incorporated the measurements of natural elements to produce a series focusing on the four elements in relation to the human body. From that time comes the collective action he conducted with the visitors to the exhibition Terrassa. Informació d’Art (Terrassa. Art Information). It took place on 1 December 1973 under the descriptive title: Comptar i numerar les pigues d’una part del braç per part dels assistents (Counting and Numbering the Freckles of a Part of the Arm by the Participants). Abad asked people in the audience to count the number of freckles on their left arm. As he explained in an interview from 1992: ‘On my return from the United States, I refused to pick up a paintbrush again. […] I started using nature as a support, to do actions.’