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Triángulo semioculto por una nube, 1972

Triangle Partially Concealed by a Cloud, 1972
Photograph, 40 x 40 cm

Shapes and geometric problems lead Torres to analyse the relationships of proportion in the urban landscape in the early years of his sojourn in the United States. In fact, Torres will be the direct witness to numerous experiments and proposals by artists who at the time were first fleeing the urban setting in order to set their works in nature and then returning at once to the city and inside the institution in order to display the results. These are the reactions to minimalism that speed up and include the resource of the organic and the appearance of biological material, as can be seen in works by artists such as Hans Haacke and in an even more accentuated manner in those by Robert Smithson. It is just a short leap from here to considering art as a fundamentally political entity, as we shall also see in Torres’ work. […]

Geometry also allows him to realise a series of writings on the landscape, such as Triángulo semioculto por una nube from 1972 and Pasando de la oscuridad a la luz from 1973. The apparent chaos of nature contains geometric fissures that the camera captures in a series of works on the urban landscape. Triángulo imaginario delimitado por el sol, Constatación de la luz en el piso trece and Statement About the Existence of a Light Triangle on Sheridan and Belmont (1972) are photographs that identify the presence of particular forms of light reflected on the buildings of New York.

During all these years in which language gives way to objectivity via the quest for geometric forms and biological elements, we have witnessed the urban landscape gaining ground as the backdrop for these interventions and photographic interpretations. However, gradually the change in contextual reference will herald the shift from mathematician, from scientist, towards the presence of a form of subjectivity that precedes politics. Perceptual Analysis of Three Dimensions (Three Points of View) and Geometria orgánica (1973) transport this inquiry into the mental entities of geometry to the interior of a room. These photographs, as well as Calendario or Sustracción de peso (de un edificio), all dating from 1973, introduce the performance factor into this series of works. Indeed, it could be argued that all photography is the fruit of an action, and that the decision and execution of any image is in and of itself a performative action.

Bartomeu Marí: Francesc Torres, catàleg de l’exposició Da Capo, realitzada al MACBA l’any 2008.


Technical details

Original title:
Triángulo semioculto por una nube
Registration number:
3250
Artist:
Torres, Francesc
Date created:
1972
Date acquired:
2008
Fonds:
MACBA Collection. Barcelona City Council long-term
Object type:
Photograph
Media:
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
40 x 40 cm (height x width)
Credits:
MACBA Collection. Barcelona City Council long-term loan
Copyright:
© Francesc Torres, 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.

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