Sin título (Untitled)

Ángel Bados is one of New Basque Sculpture’s key artists. In 1983, he participated in the exhibition Fuera de formato (Out of Format), championing the conceptual tradition over expressionist painting, and the following year had a solo show at the Miró Foundation’s Espai 10. His career is also notable for his work as a lecturer at the University of the Basque Country and, in particular, for the mark he left on subsequent generations at Arteleku contemporary art centre, in the workshops he ran alongside Txomin Badiola during the 1990s.
Sin título arises from a contingency: a red glass containing a small crack, repaired using Loctite and adhesive tape — a gift from Pello Irazu, who, in turn, had obtained it at an exhibition organised by Juan Luis Moraza; and a second glass of Danish crystal, hidden by the adhesive, purchased in Bilbao. The process of treating the glass with resin was the catalyst, according to the author, for a constructivist piece in which the glass’s physical quality is hidden by the adhesive tape, linking it to personal circumstance as a symbolic value.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio