Miquel Barceló

MIQUEL BARCELÓ (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957)
Untitled. Collection "Journey to Vienna", 1982.
Ink and graphite on paper.
Provenance: Estrany de la Mota Gallery, Barcelona.
With certificate of the Estrany de la Mota Gallery, signed by Àngels de la Mota.
Measurements: 36 x 50 cm.

The collection "Journey to Vienna" belongs to an early and especially decisive moment in the career of Barceló. The year 1982 marks his international emergence thanks to his participation in Documenta 7 in Kassel, curated by Rudi Fuchs, where Barceló established himself as one of the most prominent voices of the new Spanish painting.

In this drawing, Barceló combines the density of graphite with the fluidity of ink, generating a drawing with a pulsating, almost calligraphic stroke. He does not seek a precise anatomical representation, but the capture of a presence: a fragmented, dynamic body, inscribed in a barely suggested space. The stains, the dragging and the prominence of the white of the paper create an introspective atmosphere, close to the psychological charge that runs through his production of the early eighties.

This work is linked to the nomadic and feverish energy of the young artist, immersed in a European context in which he assimilates the expressionist tradition while defining his own language, gestural, material and deeply intuitive. In this work, the reclining figure seems to emerge from the support itself, constructed through an economy of means of great plastic intensity.

Due to its date, its belonging to the Viaje a Viena collection and its relation to the year of the artist's international turning point, this piece is a particularly significant testimony of Barceló's graphic power in his first years of creative maturity. The provenance of the Estrany de la Mota Gallery, together with the certificate signed by Àngels de la Mota, reinforces its documentary interest.

Miquel Barceló was trained in Palma de Mallorca and continued his studies in Barcelona, making his debut at the tender age of seventeen. After discovering art brut in Paris, in 1976 he held his first solo exhibition in a museum, at the Museum of Mallorca.

In 1986 he received the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas and later the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes, among other international awards. His work is represented in important museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, among other institutions of reference.