The object of exhaustive theoretical as well as museographic rereadings, conceptual art in Catalonia, at least in the last two decades, has become a sort of canonical counter-story within the reading of the seventies. Grup de Treball, a highly politicised collective comprising several artists who later made successful careers for themselves, occupies a central position in this critical genealogy. Alongside this group, the Taller de Arquitectura, a multidisciplinary platform made up of painters, poets, architects and film-makers, as well as the groups Gran de Gràcia, Praxis (Girona) and Tint-2 (Banyoles), form a spectrum that explain how deeply rooted dematerialised languages and social critique were in the Catalan context.
The painting of the 1970s spans at least three generations of very active artists, going from Antoni Tàpies and Joan Ponç to Joaquim Chancho, Joan Pere Viladecans, Robert Llimós and Frederic Amat, with Joan Hernández Pijuan providing a link between the other two. Photography, for its part, brought together Oriol Maspons and Colita with Manolo Laguillo.
A considerable increase in exhibition spaces can be seen, especially galleries (Joan Prats, Ciento, Mec Mec, Trece, G, Sala Aixelà, Eude, 49, Maeght, Galería Cadaqués, etc.). Sala Trece in Sabadell and, above all, Sala Vinçon, an important meeting-point of the time, speak for the artistic activity of those years, which also saw the rise of various counter-cultural magazines like Ajoblanco, El Rrollo enmascarado and Star, satirical magazines like El Jueves and Por Favor, and political magazines like El Viejo Topo.
The Gustavo Gili publishing house, with its collections on design and architecture, holds a prominent position, along with CAU and Carrer de la Ciutat. Llibres del Mall testifies to the extent of poetic activity throughout this period.