The works by Eduardo Barco that form part of the Collection are from a set produced between the early days of his career (noted for the exhibition 'Semillas de lienzo' ['Canvas Seeds'] at the University of Murcia in 1997) and the mid 2000s. They evidence his penchant for experimentation as he switches unashamedly between a great many different techniques and supports including paper, canvas, hessian and plastic sheeting. That experimentation enables him to tackle the challenges posed by his use of harsh, unusual materials; it helps him to continue evolving as he produces work influenced by minimalism, geometrical purity and the poetry with which brush-strokes are imbued when the steady hand of the artist is evident on the surface where they are applied.

Barco shows a constant concern for depicting space, and a tendency to revisit great classics of pure abstract art from Juan Gris through Josef Albers and Alexander Calder to Ellsworth Kelly. His output is typical of artists who seek to evoke earlier works through a highly personal view of them; specifically, he calls up certain tenets of the most analytical form of cubism and, in another highly interesting contribution, the work of collage artists.

Most of the works in this set focus on his investigation of straight lines and his evocation of volumes among the areas painted and those left blank, but the later works in the Collection hint at a shift towards the exploration of that same space through curved lines. A striking feature is his use of collage in Untitled (Mail) (2000), a work which includes the logo of the Spanish postal service, contrasted with a composition very much in the style of mid 20th-century American abstract art.

Frederic Montornés