Barceló, Miquel

MIQUEL BARCELÓ BIOGRAPHY:

Felanitx (Mallorca), 1957

Barceló occupies one of the most prominent places in Spanish painting and the current international market. His work reflects, from the outset, a notable interest in nature motifs, both terrestrial and maritime, treated with a dense, thick and generally dark palette, which has exerted a great influence among his younger colleagues.

Barceló studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Palma and, in 1974, at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. The following year, he returned to Mallorca and was part of the Lunatic Workshop, a conceptual art group. In the 1980s, he traveled around Europe, the United States and West Africa. In 1981, he participated in the São Paulo Biennial, where his works showed influences of German neo-expressionism and Italian trans-avant-garde.

The great leap came in 1982, when Rudi Fuchs, organizer of the Documenta in Kassel, chose him to represent Spanish painting. His fame did not stop growing, leading him in 1987 to be the second Spanish painter with the highest sales volume at the Art Fair, surpassed only by Tàpies. The year 1988 marked a turning point in Barceló's career: he made his first trip to Africa. From then on, he not only incorporated African materials and themes into his work, but also set up a workshop, in addition to those in Paris and Mallorca, somewhere in Mali, which he prefers not to reveal.

Barceló has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at institutions such as:

CAPC, Bordeaux (1985)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Nîmes (1991)
IVAM, Valencia (1995)
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris (1996)
Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires (1997)
MACBA, Barcelona (1998)
Palermo City Hall, in the church of Santa Eulalia dei Catalani (1998)
Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1999)
In 2003, Barceló received the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts.