Miquel Barceló is a multi-faceted artist. He has been one of Spain's most significant artists since the 1980s and one of those with the highest international profile. He trained initially at the School of Arts and Crafts in Palma (1972-1973) then moved on to the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona in 1974, though he abandoned his studies shortly afterwards. He joined the provocative conceptual art group known as Taller Llunàtic ['Lunatic Workshop'] and in 1976 staged an exhibition at the Museum of Mallorca under the title 'Cadaverina 15' that featured a number of boxes containing blends of pigments and decomposing materials. He has been working on the metaphorical potential of materials ever since. With the resurgence in popularity of pictorial art in the late 1970s, and with a broad raft of influences ranging from art brut, US action paintingand new German expressionism to the Italian transavantgarde movement, Barceló joined artists such as José María Sicilia as a leading exponent of painting based on material sensitivity. His paintings in this early period are large in format and feature animal themes. In 1982-83 he shifted towards a style more closely linked to tradition, with recurring motifs such as still-lifes, libraries, museums and cinemas depicted via densely-filled, forced perspectives and lit after the manner of chiaroscuro.
His frequent travels, especially his discovery of Africa in 1988 during a trip to Mali that lasted several months, turned his subsequent output into a continual reflection on nature, the passage of time and primal forms of life, in works shorn of all excesses in which there is a constant study of the effects of light on his subjects. Over the course of his career he has also worked in drawing, sculpture, ceramics and graphic art. In the past few decades he has received major official commissions, including the reform of the 'Santísimo' chapel at Mallorca Cathedral (2004-2007) and the ceiling of the Human Rights and Civilisations Room at UN Headquarters in Geneva (2008).
Barceló's international career has been outstanding, starting with his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981). He was then selected to take part in Documenta 7 (Kassel, Germany, 1982) and in the 'Aperto' [Open] section of the Venice Biennale (1984). This marked the start of more or less continual appearances at exhibitions at top-ranking international venues such as the CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain in Bordeaux (1985), the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (with his first retrospective) and the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (1994), the Pompidou Centre and the Jeu de Paume in Paris (1996), the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (1998), the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid (1999), the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo [‘Sao Paulo State Picture Gallery’] (2003), the Louvre in Paris (2004), the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and the Contemporary Art Centre in Malaga (2008), and culminating in his selection as Spain's representative at the Venice Biennale in 2009. 2016 saw exhibitions of his work at the Musée Picasso [‘Picasso Museum’] and the National Library of France in Paris. He has also received distinctions including Spain's National Award for Plastic Arts (1986) and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (2003), and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona in 2012.
Miquel Barceló is a multi-faceted artist. He has been one of Spain's most significant artists since the 1980s and one of those with the highest international profile. He trained initially at the School of Arts and Crafts in Palma (1972-1973) then moved on to the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi in Barcelona in 1974, though he abandoned his studies shortly afterwards. He joined the provocative conceptual art group known as Taller Llunàtic ['Lunatic Workshop'] and in 1976 staged an exhibition at the Museum of Mallorca under the title 'Cadaverina 15' that featured a number of boxes containing blends of pigments and decomposing materials. He has been working on the metaphorical potential of materials ever since. With the resurgence in popularity of pictorial art in the late 1970s, and with a broad raft of influences ranging from art brut, US action painting and new German expressionism to the Italian transavantgarde movement, Barceló joined artists such as José María Sicilia as a leading exponent of painting based on material sensitivity. His paintings in this early period are large in format and feature animal themes. In 1982-83 he shifted towards a style more closely linked to tradition, with recurring motifs such as still-lifes, libraries, museums and cinemas depicted via densely-filled, forced perspectives and lit after the manner of chiaroscuro.
His frequent travels, especially his discovery of Africa in 1988 during a trip to Mali that lasted several months, turned his subsequent output into a continual reflection on nature, the passage of time and primal forms of life, in works shorn of all excesses in which there is a constant study of the effects of light on his subjects. Over the course of his career he has also worked in drawing, sculpture, ceramics and graphic art. In the past few decades he has received major official commissions, including the reform of the 'Santísimo' chapel at Mallorca Cathedral (2004-2007) and the ceiling of the Human Rights and Civilisations Room at UN Headquarters in Geneva (2008).
Barceló's international career has been outstanding, starting with his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981). He was then selected to take part in Documenta 7 (Kassel, Germany, 1982) and in the 'Aperto' [Open] section of the Venice Biennale (1984). This marked the start of more or less continual appearances at exhibitions at top-ranking international venues such as the CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain in Bordeaux (1985), the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (with his first retrospective) and the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (1994), the Pompidou Centre and the Jeu de Paume in Paris (1996), the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (1998), the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid (1999), the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo [‘Sao Paulo State Picture Gallery’] (2003), the Louvre in Paris (2004), the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and the Contemporary Art Centre in Malaga (2008), and culminating in his selection as Spain's representative at the Venice Biennale in 2009. 2016 saw exhibitions of his work at the Musée Picasso [‘Picasso Museum’] and the National Library of France in Paris. He has also received distinctions including Spain's National Award for Plastic Arts (1986) and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (2003), and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona in 2012.