Overview
Renown for the diversity of his work, Barceló’s oeuvre ranges from monumental terracotta murals for the chapel of Saint Peter inside the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca to a performance piece/living sculpture with the French Serbian-born choreographer Josef Nadj.
While I sleep or read, my paintings that lie on the floor dry slowly because of the humidity of the island. The time they take to dry is very important. The work may be finished but at times it’s like a puddle, everything can change in an instant.
I have been scuba diving for a very long time. When I work on large paintings on the floor, it’s as if I were free diving. I immerse. I make the right moves or at least I try. I hold my breath, I counterbalance the pressure… Then I come out blowing sea water through the snorkel…or as if…
This would be the tempo of my paintings; the successive minutes of holding my breath.
One might find similarities with other artists. Like with Seurat, the prolonged smear of a Conté pencil or the Morse writing brush, almost noiseless, held at 25° over the rough grain paper: tap-tap….taptaptap…tap…; or with Van Gogh the rhythm of trains arriving at a station in the provinces or in the suburbs, chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga.
Tarataratara tarara; with Picasso, long sentences with abrupt endings: clapping and heel stomping like in the Seguiriyas…
—Miquel Barceló
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to represent Miquel Barceló and to host the first solo exhibition of 17 recent works on view in Paris Marais from 25 April - 31 May 2015.
Renown for the diversity of his work, Barceló’s oeuvre ranges from monumental terracotta murals for the chapel of Saint Peter inside the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca to a performance piece/living sculpture with the French Serbian-born choreographer Josef Nadj. In 2008 he created the ceiling painting for Chamber XX of the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations, at the United Nations offices in Geneva, covering the 1500m2 ellipsoidal dome with 35 tons of paint of pigments from all corners of the globe creating multi-coloured stalactite forms.
Deeply influenced by poetry, in 2004 he showed over 300 drawings at the Musée du Louvre illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy. In 2009 he represented Spain at the 53rd Venice Biennale. In addition, retrospectives have been organized at renowned institutions, such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid) and the Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico). His work is included in international public and private collections around the world.
In Spring 2016, Barceló will have a major exhibition at the Musée Picasso as well as at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mitterrand, both in Paris.
Miquel Barceló (b. 1957) was born in Felanitx, Majorca, and divides his time between Majorca, Paris, and Mali.
A catalogue will be published with a text by the Spanish author Enrique Vila-Matas and quotes on each work by Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa.
Follow us on the social networks @ThaddaeusRopac via the hashtag #MiquelBarcelo
