Miquel Barceló: Ni nature, ni morte Louvre curator Marie-Laure Bernadac in conversation with the artist

At 7pm on Monday 24 October, Miquel Barceló will be in conversation with Louvre contemporary art curator Marie-Laure Bernadac. The talk is part of the cycle of conferences related to the exhibition Les Choses, which retraces the history of the still life genre and includes a painting from the artist's grisaille series.

Miquel Barceló is undoubtedly the greatest contemporary painter of still lifes – a recurring theme in his work, which he explores under every possible form. Having painted kitchens in the 1980s, he then attempted to reinvent the genre by integrating real objects and animals into his paintings. No longer content to represent them but to present them, he set tomatoes, melons, watermelons, figs and other Mediterranean fruits in canvases bursting with life, alongside dead animals, chickens, rabbits, goats, creating disturbing memento mori. Then appeared innumerable fish, the variety of which he discovered at the bottom of the sea. Since 2021, he has returned to a series of large paintings that form a synthesis of his favorite motifs, associated with multiple references to the history of art: Zurbaran, Chardin, Melendez, Velazquez and even Caillebotte.

Miquel Barceló often resorts to monochrome and greyness, in order to better bring out the abundance of food and the generosity of the tables, as in the Flemish still lifes. In his work, still life is more alive than ever.