Antoni Miralda

ANTONI MIRALDA (Terrassa, 1942).
“Soldats.”
Assemblage (plastic toy soldiers and tapestry) in a methacrylate dome. Edition 3/33.
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 66 cm (diameter).

Antoni Miralda’s experience in the University Militias during the 1960s constitutes one of the cornerstones of his artistic imagination. During his military service, he sketched scenes of life in the barracks and portraits of his fellow soldiers in his notebooks, viewing them as victims of compulsory service under Franco’s dictatorship. Drawing on that memory, the artist transformed traditional toy soldiers into a powerful symbol of pacifism and anti-war sentiment, stripping them of their military significance to turn them into a critical reflection on war, power, and violence.

A multidisciplinary artist, Antoni Miralda moved to Paris in 1962, where he began collaborating with the magazine “Elle” and, at the same time, developing his concept of “Food Culture” or edible art. In 1971, he moved to New York, and since then he has divided his time between Europe and the United States. Two decades later, now fully established on the international scene, he participated in the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1990). Throughout his career, Miralda has held major exhibitions of his work, though the retrospective dedicated to him by the MNCARS in Madrid in 2010 stands out in particular.