MACBA Collection
As in other presentations of the Museum’s Collection, this exhibition provided a chronological survey that focused on certain moments throughout the second half of the twentieth century.
The show began with the magazine Dau al Set and the works of some members of the group of the same name, the projects of Hans Hofmann for Chimbote (Mexico) and the mobiles of Alexander Calder. European Informalism was exemplified by the works of Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura, Lucio Fontana and Jean Dubuffet. Neo-Dadaism and related tendencies were represented by Robert Rauschenberg, Dieter Roth and Piero Manzoni. Also featured were the international positions pre-dating Conceptualism, including works by Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Francesc Torres and Antoni Llena. Catalan Conceptual art was well represented, with works by Grup de Treball, Francesc Abad, Àngels Ribé, Fina Miralles and Jordi Cerdà.
The return to figurative painting and photography in the eighties was exemplified by the paintings of Anselm Kiefer, A.R. Penck and Jean-Michel Basquiat, together with the photographic works of Craigie Horsfield, Jean-Marc Bustamante and Jeff Wall, among others. Work by Pep Agut and Jordi Colomer, with their unambiguous references to the contemporary, closed the exhibition.
A work-type that appeared in the sixties, incorporating objects and different materials on the surface of the painting, was exemplified in this exhibition by Albert Ràfols-Casamada, Josep Guinovart and the piece Sorra blanca i jersei (White Sand and Sweater), 1970, by Antoni Tàpies, which incorporates an actual garment on the canvas. The nouveau réalisme of Raymond Hains, the work of Cy Twombly and the radical positions adopted by artists such as Marcel Broodthaers and Piero Manzoni, reflected some of the most profound and experimental transformations undergone by art throughout the twentieth century. Another direction, taking on board the main concerns of Conceptualism, was represented by the works of Hans Haacke, Muntadas and other Catalan Conceptual artists.
The art of the eighties was present with the ‘photo-tableau’ of Craigie Horsfield, John Coplans, Suzanne Lafont and Dan Graham, as well as paintings by Miquel Barceló, A.R. Penck and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Among the more recent works were Rear, 304 E 25th Ave., May 20, 1997, 1.14 & 1.17 pm 1997, 1997, by Jeff Wall and Los síntomas son palabras atrapadas en el cuerpo (Symptoms are words trapped in the body), 2000, by Pep Agut.
