Víctor Mira

VÍCTOR MIRA (Zaragoza, 1949 – Munich, 2003).
“Estilitas,” 1988.
Mixed media on panel.
Certificate issued by Ms. Ester Romero Fajardo is attached.
Work published in “Religion, Memory, and the Body in Contemporary Art.” p. 173.
Accompanied by the book “Religion.gedächtnis.körper in gegenwartskunst,” edited by Johannes Rauchenberger.
Measurements: 74 x 102 cm.
The motif of the stylite—an ascetic who, following a practice of extreme penance, withdrew from the world to live atop a column—takes on a deeply symbolic dimension in Mira’s work. The four figures depicted evoke isolation, sacrifice, contemplation, and spiritual quest, while embodying the tension between the body and its desire for transcendence. In this composition, the four stylites appear as hieratic and essential figures, transformed by the artist into symbols of a human experience that transcends its religious origins. Mira thus draws upon traditional iconography to transform it into a contemporary image of solitude, memory, suffering, and the human condition. Created in 1988, the work marks a particularly significant moment in the artist’s career, when the figure of the stylite began to occupy a central place within his artistic universe. Mira’s characteristic combination of material, drawing, and color helps create an atmosphere of spiritual intensity and powerful expressiveness.
A sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer, he was largely self-taught. At the age of eighteen, he held his first solo exhibition at the N’Art Gallery in Zaragoza, which was also the first outdoor sculpture exhibition ever held in that city. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Madrid, where he exhibited in 1973 at the Pol Verdié Gallery. After spending some time splitting his time between Madrid and Germany, he settled in Barcelona in 1977. In 1979, he held his first solo exhibition in Munich at the Tanit Gallery, and the following year he exhibited his work in the United States at the George Staempfli Gallery in New York. From then on, his international career took off, with exhibitions in Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Colombia, France, Belgium, and Austria, while he continued to exhibit regularly in Spain. In 2003, shortly before his death, he received the award for best living Spanish artist at the ARCO Art Fair. The most recent retrospective exhibition dedicated to this artist was held in Düsseldorf, Germany, at the Beck & Eggeling Gallery. Works by Mira are held in museums and private collections around the world, notably the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Reina Sofía National Art Center, the MACBA, the Fine Arts Museums of Vitoria and Zaragoza, the Beulas Foundation in Huesca, and the ICO Collections Museum in Madrid.