Chromo 4, 1999

Carlos Pazos  

Carlos Pazos is an emblematic figure for its uniqueness in the Spanish contemporary art history. A heterogeneous creator, his work hosts Neo-Dadaism, Arte Povera, Surrealism, the aesthetics of Marcel Duchamp’s ready-made, the Robert Rauschenberg’s combines and, subsequently, Andy Warhol’s cult figure and the institutional analysis of Marcel Broodthaers.

However, despite the references and echoes of other practices, his work remains unclassifiable amid the all-embracing and normative character of art criticism. Although his work carries in the surface a marked sense of humor, it is also deeply dramatic. Pazos confirms the failure of modernity and questions any systems of representation: the image can no longer evoke any reality and the ego springs from fiction. The artist hides behind a variety of masks and, through the use of souvenirs and objects, turns the art of collecting into one of the main themes of his artistic practice. With kitsch aesthetic, he combines the poetics of the object with irony and a narcissistic mask.