Miquel Barceló

(Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957) A Spanish artist who is among the most sought-after and unanimously recognized on the current scene. Endowed with a formidable creative force, his work ranges from immense canvases and murals to terracotta and ceramic sculptures. His painting incorporates numerous cultural references, among which, in an initial phase, the Mediterranean background stands out, and, following his stay in Mali, which began in 1988, the African landscape and way of life. More recently, he has introduced into his work complex and intellectualized reflections on the artist's private environment, such as his studio and his library. Another notable area of his artistic activity is book illustration, in which he has illustrated works by Dante, Paul Bowles, and Enrique Juncosa, among others. Miquel Barceló's early interest in art stems from his mother, a painter in the Mallorcan landscape tradition; His first realisation came when he travelled to Paris in 1974 and discovered the paintings of Paul Klee, Jean Dubuffet, and the works of Art Brut in general, which would have a lasting impact on him. That same year, he began attending drawing and modelling classes at the School of Decorative Arts in Palma de Mallorca, and shortly afterward entered the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, although he barely attended classes during the first few months. However, his self-taught training was decisive: he voraciously read all kinds of works and gradually explored the paintings of Lucio Fontana, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning, among other prominent artists. In 1976, he participated in the happenings and protest actions of the Taller Llunàtic group, and with them held his first exhibition in Barcelona, at the Mec-Mec gallery, in 1977; the following year, he exhibited paint-covered canvases in Mallorca, incorporating organic elements. Later, he experimented with thick layers of paint on canvases, which he exposed to the elements, provoking spontaneous physical and chemical reactions, such as oxidation and cracking, which revealed the inner workings of the painting. He never abandoned his experimentation with organic materials and forms taken from nature. His participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981) and Documenta VII in Kassel (1982) launched him onto the international art scene at a young age. The world's leading museums and galleries began to attract him, and his paintings achieved extremely high prices, unheard of for an artist of his age. Important awards followed quickly: in 1986 he won the National Prize for Plastic Arts, and in 2003 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. Barceló has lived for long periods in Mali, an African country whose light, like that of the Mediterranean, has left a profound mark on his painting. In 1992, he secretly married Cecile, a Dutch literary specialist, in the town of Artá. Months later, in August of that year, he became a father for the first time when his wife gave birth to a daughter in Mallorca, named Marcela María Celia. The couple lives in their home-studio in Sa Devesa de Ferrutx (Mallorca). In 2002, he created a memorable illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy, and in 2007, he inaugurated an extraordinary ceramic altarpiece in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament of Palma de Mallorca Cathedral, recreating the miracle of the loaves and fishes. In November 2008, the decoration of the dome of Room XX of the United Nations Palace in Geneva, christened the "Hall of Human Rights and the Alliance of Civilizations," was presented to the public. This work, which covers 1,600 square meters and cost 20 million euros, can only be appreciated by the viewer in fragments due to its large surface area; in it, the artist shaped thousands of marine stalactites that together evoke a great universal sea. Baroque painting, Art Brut, American Abstract Expressionism, Italian Arte Povera, and the works of Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies are among the influences Barceló has transfigured into a formidable personal synthesis of Neo-Expressionist character and boundless imagination, with a dense material presence and immense visual richness.