Carta de colores (Historia) II

Ignasi Aballí is one of the most notable proponents of conceptual art in Spain.  His work is characterized by a reflection on the representation and perception of media like painting, photography, film, video and sculpture.

Aballí began his career representing reality through traditional languages, but soon began to seek out new ways of relating to art as well as different angles from which to tackle painting.  Turning to the explorations of conceptual art, he created works in which he expressed his interest in the relationship between it and language.  One of the clearest examples of this is Carta de colores (Historia), in which we can read a list of authors who, according to Aballí, have been crucial in the construction of the medium of painting.  The series is composed of three chapters: the first runs from the first artist to sign his work to those identified with the baroque period; the second, included in this selection, names painters from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.  The contemporary period, captured in the third chapter, is still in progress.

Through seemingly simple gestures like creating lists, Aballí condenses temporalities, geographies, styles, paradigm shifts and even changes in the way we think, creating a portrait of a medium that has been present throughout the History of Art.