Lanzaronte X, 1999
b. 1957 in Felanitx (Mallorca), Spain
Lives and works in Paris, Mallorca and Mali
Born in 1957 in Felanitx, Mallorca, Barceló lives and works between Paris and Mallorca. In 1974, he was admitted to Palma de Mallorca's Fine Arts School, before joining the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In 1976, he was involved in the happenings and protests of Taller Llunatic, an avant-garde conceptual group. Despite his deep-rooted connection to Spain, he draws inspiration from his time spent in various locations, having lived and worked in Barcelona, Portugal, Palermo, Paris, Geneva, New York, the Himalayas and West Africa.
In the mid 1980s, Barceló began eliminating narrative elements from his works, creating an increasingly unreal space punctuated by holes, cracks and transparencies. This process of simplification culminated in 1988, a year in which he travelled across the Sahara and created his white paintings. Relying on cultural and geographical diversity for inspiration, his time in Mali, where he established a studio, was a formative experience. For Barceló, painting is a visceral way of relating himself to the world and, as such, his art connects with the primitive beauty of cave paintings. He expands the technical boundaries of representation, while remaining rooted in the grand tradition of painting, following in the footsteps of Picasso or Goya when representing bullfight scenes or Baroque painters when completing a commission for the Palma de Mallorca Cathedral.
Renown for the diversity of his work, Barceló’s oeuvre ranges from his monumental terracotta murals for the chapel of Saint Peter inside the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca to performance. In the early 1980s, Barceló earned international renown as one the foremost Spanish painters, rising to fame after his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981) and representing Spain at the Documenta 7 exhibition in Kassel in 1982.
Over the past four decades, Barceló has explored a variety of styles, from neo-expressionist canvases to colourful still lifes and pale, thickly textured abstract paintings. An artistic nomad, Barceló draws inspiration from his time spent in varying locations. Though he always returns to his native Mallorca, over the years Barceló has also worked in Barcelona, Portugal, Palermo, Paris, Geneva, New York, the Himalayas, and West Africa.
Over the past four decades, Barceló has explored a variety of styles, from neo-expressionist canvases to colourful still lifes and pale, thickly textured abstract paintings. An artistic nomad, Barceló draws inspiration from his time spent in varying locations. Though he always returns to his native Mallorca, over the years Barceló has also worked in Barcelona, Portugal, Palermo, Paris, Geneva, New York, the Himalayas, and West Africa.
Working across a wide range of mediums, including paintings, works on paper, ceramic, and bronze, Barceló has continued to experiment with the materials of his art, frequently incorporating materials from his extensive travels into his paintings. Across this diverse body of work, there are several recurring themes. He has continued to be fascinated by the natural world, creating richly textured canvases that recall the earthly materiality of Catalan painters such as Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró, as well as compositions that study the effects of light and the ever-changing colours of the sea. He has also explored the history and traditions of painting, exploring the medium’s traditional subjects and technical challenges through his experimentation with the treatment of light, colour, perspective, and composition.
In 2008 Barceló created the ceiling painting for United Nations offices in Geneva, covering a 1500m2 ellipsoidal dome with 35 tons of paint creating multi-coloured stalactite forms, in 2004 showed over 300 drawings at the Musée du Louvre illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy, and 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 (1996), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1999)
and the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico (2005), as well as solo exhibitions at the Galerie National Jeu de Paume, Paris, Whitechapel, London, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Musée du Louvre, Paris, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Musée Picasso, Paris and Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. His public commissions include large-scale sculptural installations for the Chapel of Saint Peter in the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca (2001-06) and the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva (2008).