Miquel Barceló Little Spanish Dance, 2021

With Little Spanish Dance (2021), Miquel Barceló adopts a variation on the traditional grisaille technique by applying translucent layers of pale pink pigment over a monochromatic underpainting. He reimagines the conventions of 17th-century European still-life painting, arranging objects in the form of a bull, whose head dominates the right side of the canvas. The animal's back becomes a tabletop that bears a large bouquet of flowers, snails, fruit, vegetables and fish, with the latter doubling as a tail for the bull, gesturing to the fantastical compositions of the Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (c.1527-93). The dream-like assemblage of objects is loosely held together in a state of proximity, as if it is underwater, fusing the conventions of the still-life tradition with the artist's own relationship to the sea, sustenance and the cycle of life, as he experiences living and working on the island of Mallorca.