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Adfera
Barbadillo, Manuel, born 1929 - died 2003 - Enlarge image
Adfera
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
Spain (probably, made)
- Date:
1972 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Barbadillo, Manuel, born 1929 - died 2003 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Screenprint on paper
- Credit Line:
Given by the Computer Arts Society, supported by System Simulation Ltd, London
- Museum number:
E.194-2008
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case CAS, shelf 4
This screenprint is the outcome of a series of visuals trials carried out using a computer and a bespoke program (for an example of the original computer print out, see E.158-2008). Barbadillo wrote a computer program that would enable him to rotate the U-shaped forms within a grid, to produce any number of different patterns. The artist assigned the forms numerical values and used a series of rules to alter these values and to explore the relationship between the forms. Barbadillo would then compare the different outcomes in a sequence to decide which one was visually the most effective, and should be developed further into a screenprint, as with this work, or into a painting. By using the computer as a tool, Barbadillo was able to process much larger quantities of information than would otherwise have been possible.
Barbadillo began undertaking computer research in 1968 at the Centro de Cálculo de la Universidad de Madrid. This rational approach to the creative process can be seen as something of a backlash against Abstract Expressionism, a style that flourished in the 1950s, and which put great emphasis on subjective self expression, over and above form and composition.
