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Claus, 1968 (1982)

Keys, 1968 (1982)
Object, Key: 0.6 x 6.5 x 2.3 cm; tin opener: 0.4 x 8.3 x 2.9 cm

How did the idea of visual poems arise?

It began in 1951 with an exhibition of Dau al Set at the Galeria Caralt, which included texts of mine. I had three poems that, for want of another name, were called experimental poems because they were built using objects: a hammer, a playing card, an altered nail, etc. I felt the need to try things out, to find a new measure to the poem, just like when in the theatre I needed a third dimension to the plain text of the written poem, beyond the traditional conventions of drama. Adventure has always interested me. When it was essentially literary poetry, I realised that I could spend my life doing odes and sonnets. In my early literary essays I gave great importance to language, the bulk of the language, but I saw that this was just a trick and I had to find a new concept. One day, João Cabral de Melo told me he appreciated my poetry, full of images and brilliant, but that it was like an eye that sees but doesn’t look. Thus began what I call essentialist poetry, for lack of a better name.

Lladó, Ramon: ‘Entrevista a Joan Brossa: el poeta en estat d'aventura’, El Temps (11 June 1990), pp. 76–79


Technical details

Original title:
Claus
Registration number:
4764
Artist:
Brossa, Joan
Date created:
1968 (1982)
Date acquired:
2011
Fonds:
MACBA Collection. MACBA Consortium
Object type:
Object
Media:
Metal and hemp thread
Dimensions:
Key: 0.6 x 6.5 x 2.3 cm; tin opener: 0.4 x 8.3 x 2.9 cm
Credits:
MACBA Collection. MACBA Consortium. Joan Brossa Fund. Long-term loan of Fundació Joan Brossa
Copyright:
© Fundació Joan Brossa, 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.

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