Miquel Barceló

MIQUEL BARCELÓ (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957).
"Bain Nocturne", 1990.
Lithography on Arches paper. Copy 18/20.
Embossing: "Item".
Publisher: Item Workshops, Paris.
Framed with museum glass.
Measurements: 42,5 x 60 cm; 53 x 70,5 cm (frame).
During this decade in the work of Barceló a synthesis of influences, from American abstract expressionism to the Baroque legacy, which he imbibed in his frequent visits to the Prado Museum. This is how he expressed it in his 1991 lecture: "I return to the Prado like an animal to the watering hole or like an insect to the puddle, I drink from these thick dark waters". In this Taula, both traditions, the avant-garde and the baroque, are evident: with the objects of the still life sunk in the chromatic magma in ochre tones that refer to the chiaroscuro of the Castilian tradition, on the one hand, and on the other, evoking the earth and impasto of Dubuffet, Fautrier or Tàpies, important references for the Mallorcan painter.
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 began in the early eighties, giving a definitive boost to his career after his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981) and the Documenta in Kassel (1982). In 1986 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas, and since then his work has been recognized through the most outstanding awards, such as the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes (2003) or the Sorolla Prize of the Hispanic Society of America in New York (2007). Barceló is currently represented in the most important contemporary art museums in the world, such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Marugami Hirai in Japan, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the CAPC in Bordeaux, the Carré d'Art in Nimes, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.