“Apart from its aesthetic condition (a question that can be partially related to the notion of taste), art must be an element of communication and critical contribution. From this, art can have a voice in the renewal of culture. In any case, I only conceive it as a testimony that provides data and raises questions about society, history and art.”
(Joan Rabascall, 1976)
Ironic, scathing and provocative, the work of Joan Rabascall (Barcelona, 1935) has always revolved around political and social critique. After settling in Paris in 1962 thanks to a grant to study at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, he soon began to develop his career as a conceptual artist. Rabascall uses his art as a form of protest against traditional artistic practices, questioning even what had until then been considered the ideal concepts of beauty, technique or quality, employing new supports and visual media such as digital printing, photographic reproduction and video. It was a true break with earlier artistic and aesthetic conventions; now the idea or concept takes on fundamental importance.