They Can’t Come Tonight Nacho Criado, last days on display
In a literal reference to fishing and its symbology, Ellos no pueden venir esta noche (They Can’t Come Tonight) examines how memory and the passage of time operate, a theme that always interested this artist. A number of rectangular pieces of glass hang by fishing line – weighted with lead weights and hooks – from a long iron pipe resting on two supports. As Criado explained: ‘Ellos no pueden venir esta noche thinks back on all those people who have at certain times helped me in my work: Rothko, Manzoni, Duchamp, Beuys, Mondrian, Klein, Maciunas. It’s my way of acknowledging them.’ Acknowledging aesthetic and ideological references is a constant trait of his work. He never ceased to pay tribute and find inspiration in those artists he regarded as his masters. You can see the work in the exhibition Action: A provisional history of the 90s.
