Miquel Barceló

MIQUEL BARCELÓ ARTIGUES (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957).
"Crânes Papaie", 1999.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower area.
Measurements: 56 x 76 cm; 76 x 96 cm (frame).
This work demonstrates totally personal aspects of Barceló, impossible to relate to his influences or predecessors, the most outstanding of which is his break with tradition through his tireless search for new formulas and his fascination with different aspects of nature. An example of this is this watercolor, since the artist starts from the traditional "vanitas", but his technique and the tendency towards the telluric bring us closer to a completely organic image that does not transmit the fleetingness of life, but a cyclical conception of it. In this work, the Mallorcan creates a work of great expressiveness, firmly rooted in nature and archaic tradition, which at the same time reveals a surprising and brilliant modernity.
A painter and sculptor, Barceló began his training at the School of Arts and Crafts in Palma de Mallorca, where he studied between 1972 and 1973. In 1974 he made his individual debut, at the age of seventeen, at the Picarol Gallery in Mallorca. That same year he moved to Barcelona, where he enrolled at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts, and made his first trip to Paris. In the French capital he discovers the work of Paul Klee, Fautrier, Wols and Dubuffet, as well as the "art brut", a style that will exert an important influence on his first paintings. During these years he reads extensively, and enriches himself with works as diverse as the writings of Breton and the surrealists, the "White Manifesto" by Lucio Fontana or the "Social History of Literature and Art" by Arnold Hauser. In 1976 he holds his first solo exhibition in a museum: "Cadaverina 15" at the Museum of Mallorca, consisting of a montage of 225 wooden boxes with glass lids, with decomposing organic materials inside. That same year, back in Mallorca, he joined the Taller Lunàtic group and took part in its social, political and cultural events. In 1977 he makes a second trip to Paris, and also visits London and Amsterdam. That same year he exhibits for the first time in Barcelona, and meets Javier Mariscal, who will become one of his best friends in the city. Together with him and the photographer Antoni Catany he participates, as a member of the group "Neón de Suro", in exhibitions in Canada and California, and collaborates with the publication of the magazine of the same name. It was also in 1977 when he received his first large-format pictorial commission: a mural for the dining room of a hotel in Cala Millor, Mallorca. The following year, at the age of twenty-one, he sells his first works to some collectors and galleries, and finally moves to Barcelona. His international recognition begins in the early eighties, definitely boosting his career following his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981) and the Documenta de Kassel (1982). In 1986 he was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts, and since then his work has received numerous awards, such as the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (2003) and the Sorolla Prize from the Hispanic Society of America in New York (2007). Barceló is currently represented in the most important art museums in the world, such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, etc.