Miquel Navarro

MIQUEL NAVARRO (Mislata, Valencia, 1945–2026).
“Torre cega,” 1987.
Terracotta.
Signed and dated on the inside of the base.
Measurements: 69 x 21 cm.

Miquel Navarro’s sculptural work is characterized by the creation of architectural spaces—totemic beings that sanctify the three-dimensionality of the site. This terracotta piece is a prime example of this, as its stylized aesthetic, combined with bold yet refined volumes, brings us closer to a wholly symbolic conception. Starting from figuration, the piece ascends toward an abstraction of pure, bold forms that do not detach themselves from reality but aspire to the immutable. The rigor of the forms, volumes, and hollows is presented as an interplay in which light and shadow play a central role. The boldness and totemic quality are evident in this monumental figure.

A painter and sculptor, Miquel Navarro is today considered one of Spain’s most internationally renowned artists, as well as one of the most representative figures of the new Spanish sculpture movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which focused particularly on the expanded space of installations, as well as interventions in nature and actions involving the body. He trained at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia and began his career in the early 1960s, exhibiting his first “Ciutat” in 1973, made of clay—a prototypical concept that integrates sets of small pieces arranged as diverse structures and constructions ranging from the rural to the urban and from the environmental to the industrial. He later began using iron, as it allowed him to create larger and more durable sculptures. In 1980, he made his international debut with his first exhibition in New York (Guggenheim Museum), followed by others in Berlin, California, Mexico, Florence, and elsewhere. In 1986, he was awarded the National Prize for Visual Arts, and in 2008, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. He has monumental sculptures in various Spanish cities and abroad, and his work is represented in the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofía Art Center in Madrid, the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, the MACBA in Barcelona, the IVAM in Valencia, the Mie in Japan, and the Würth Künzelsau in Germany, among other public and private collections.