A project by Carlos Pazos, an ever-surprising artist working on the margins of set disciplines, who explores the abyss between high and low culture and invites us to consider themes of good and bad taste in general and, particularly, the concept of taste in painting.
Counting on the collaboration of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) and the support of Eloy Fernández Porta, Carlos Pazos has selected a series of paintings from that museum and combined them with works from the PazosCuchillo collection, along with some of his own works, to transform the temporary exhibition space at Museu Can Framis into a large installation.
A great artist once said that museum storerooms are bleak: the furthest they could be from art. Yet, how wrong he was! It is precisely in the catacombs that we find the most striking, disconcerting and breathtaking forms of pictorial creation …
… which are not quite the best, at least from an orthodox perspective. How can we define bad painting? If it is bad, is it so because of aesthetic or moral reasons? Are its defects intentional or unintentional? Which canons or criteria of taste waver when faced with a poorly composed artwork? Who would this exhibition be bad for? Bad Painting? aims to address these questions, both in a humorous and serious way, and it does so through a counter-history of figurative painting between 1850 and 1950, a period which encompasses many well-known artists – who perhaps did not have their most inspired day – with lesser-known artists, who we have rescued from a perhaps unjust oblivion.
Bad Painting? is the result of a unique collaboration between different institutions: the Museu Nacional, where most of the paintings come from; the PazosCuchillo collection, who have offered others; Fundació Vila Casas, scene of the crime; and, least of all, the Museu d’Art Modern de Barcelona, a gallery which was frequently visited by the project instigator (who also presents his own works) during his years in training, and which has served as the source of inspiration for the assembly of this exhibition.
If Bad Painting? is an aesthetic crime – the viewer will make up their own mind about this – the main culprit has been Carlos Pazos, the usual suspect, the tireless tracker, who has been aided and abetted (diurnally, nocturnally and theoretically) by Eloy Fernández Porta.
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