Miquel Barceló
Miquel Barceló is one of the most outstanding creators of the contemporary art scene.
He is a painter, ceramist, sculptor and illustrator and his work is characterized by the use of matter, the use of impasto to create reliefs, experimentation with the organic, and his inspiration in nature, in the Mediterranean Sea and in the landscapes that have been part of his life.
He was born in Felanitx (Mallorca) in 1957.
Her interest in art comes from her mother who was also a painter.
When she was 17 years old she made a trip to Paris where she discovered Art Brut through artists such as Jean Dubuffet, a style that impacted her and influenced her first works.
Other artists such as Joan Miró or Antoni Tàpies, or artistic movements such as American abstract expressionism or “arte povera” have also been very important influences in the development of his artistic career.
In 1974, he entered the School of Decorative Arts in Palma de Mallorca, and later in the School of Fine Arts Sant Jordi in Barcelona, although he did not finish his studies.
His self-taught training was decisive: the readings and study of painters such as Lucio Fontana, Mark Rotkho or Jackson Pollock were his greatest influences.
It was his participation in the Sao Paulo Biennial and the Documenta de Kassel VII in the early 80s that made his career project despite his youth, and major museums and galleries around the world began to be interested in his work. He also soon received awards, such as the National Prize for Plastic Arts (1986) and later the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (2003).
In 1988, he travels to Africa with other artists but does not return but decides to stay and visit different countries.
This trip was a turning point both in his artistic career and on a personal level, and he decided to establish his studio there in addition to the one he already had in Mallorca and Paris.
In Mali, the landscapes and their inhabitants are the inspiration to create his paintings.
In addition, he is also initiated in ceramics thanks to all that the women who continue with the tradition teach him: grazing clay, extracting it from the mountain, kneading, modeling.
As he explains, his start with this technique was “by accident” when the wind prevented him from painting without everything getting full of sand.
Since then, he has created more than 4,000 ceramics, which reproduce his characteristic themes and motifs, such as botanical and zoological shapes and images, both from the rural and marine world.
Barceló has also created monumental works such as the decoration of the Santísimo chapel in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, in which he recreates the fruits of the earth and the fruits of the sea, (2007) and also the Dome of the Human Rights Hall at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, in which he shapes thousands of marine stalactites that together remind us of a great universal sea (2008) Miquel Barceló continues to develop his work in his three studios in Mallorca, Mali and Paris: From illustrated books to the texts of his own catalogs and notebooks, scenographies for operas, performances, and participating in exhibitions and retrospectives while receiving awards and recognitions.
