5861_009_rgb--imatge-5861_009_rgbtif 5861_010_rgb--imatge-vitrines-cmyk
5861_009_rgb--imatge-5861_009_rgbtif
Ignasi Aballí
Vitrines CMYK
CMYK Vitrines
2011
digital repository
request image
Vitrines CMYK is an installation that brings together the different interests that run through Ignasi Aballí's work. In it we find the linguistic element and the capacity, always limited, to index and name the world; a physical essay on the nature of colour, and a reflection on the exhibiting conditions of art and, by extension, on the very nature of artistic activity.

As the title indicates, Aballí takes what usually serves as a support for a work of art – Perspex display cases placed on plinths – and alters their function: while they usually serve as a support, here they constitute the content. While they normally ‘show’, in this case they ‘demonstrate’. Aballí presents four apparently empty showcases. Instead of objects, he assigns them a colour: the four primary pigments for the execution of any type of colour printing. While elsewhere he has worked on chromatism based on painting, in this case he refers to the standard four-colour printing system known by its acronym: CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key [or black]). But the showcases also incorporate another of the artist’s common elements: language. Each has a brief description of the assigned colour, with information about the colour in question and a list of its different ordering systems used from Aristotle to date.

Besides offering a theory about colour that reverberates throughout the artist's work, Vitrines CMYK can also be seen as a reflection on the conditions of the exhibition space, on what is shown and what is said, on transparency and opacity, invisibility and illegibility, and on what is exhibited and the conditions that make the act of exhibiting possible. Because, beyond its visual properties, Aballí's work reflects on the limits of the illusion of representation, whether pictorial or linguistic.
show more show less
The texts of the MACBA web draw on previous documentation. Please let us know if you find any errors.
original title
Vitrines CMYK
year of acquisition
2020
type of object
Installation
dimensions
4 vitrines: 180 x 180 x 60 cm each
Copyright
© Ignasi Aballí
registration number
R.5861
date
2011
fonds
MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
media
Methacrylate, digital print and aluminium
credits
MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Work purchased thanks to "la Caixa" Foundation
original title
Vitrines CMYK
registration number
R.5861
date
2011
year of acquisition
2020
fonds
MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
type of object
Installation
media
Methacrylate, digital print and aluminium
dimensions
4 vitrines: 180 x 180 x 60 cm each
credits
MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Work purchased thanks to "la Caixa" Foundation
Copyright
© Ignasi Aballí

images

2 images
this content can only be
watched in the library
of macba.
this content can only be
watched in the library
of macba.
OBRA TITLE
OBRA TITLE
yyyy-YYYY
ARTIST NAME
this content can only be
watched in the library
of macba.
this content can only be
watched in the library
of macba.
Enquiry the MACBA Library for more information on the work or artist.
If you want to make a work loan request, go to colleccio@macba.cat.
If you want the image of the work in high resolution, you can send an image loan request.

contact

for more information, please contact us through the following links
for further information
colleccio@macba.cat

for further information
Image loan request