Rampas (Ramps)

Nacho Criado

Mengíbar, Jaén, Spain, 1943 - Madrid, Spain, 2010
  • Date: 
    1967
  • Material: 
    Wood
  • Technique: 
    Direct carving
  • Dimensions: 
    14 x 10 x 80 cm
  • Category: 
    Sculpture
  • Entry date: 
    2009
  • Register number: 
    AD05403

In the second half of the 1970s, Nacho Criado’s work was characterised by the use of poor-quality materials associated with contemporary Arte Povera activities, and for the gradual influx of a definite conceptualism inspired by Land Art and Performance Art. Behind its apparently Minimalist form, Rampas (Ramps, 1967) already shows certain elements of what would become the conceptual and processual character of Criado’s work. The accent is placed equally on the poverty of the material and the effect that time and the elements have on it, in this particular case the action of woodworm on wood, a kind of destructive build-up that escapes the grip and the intentions of the artist. Rampas is reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s poetics and ready-mades, and presents the contrast between their definite presence in the space and the fate that awaits them: their inevitable reduction to dust. In his essay “A propósito de la intervención” (On Intervention), Criado considers this way of working on a particular kind of collaboration which brings together the minimal effect of the artist and the decisive action of destructive outside forces: “Point of departure. Material. Minimal interference, and so far so good. Make way for the collaboration. Without ceasing to be so you will be what you were and even more so for those who will also be. Call them collaborators in the final solution.”

Carmen Fernández Aparicio

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