Embestida

Material

Mixed media on canvas

Dating

2017

About the artwork

Miquel Barceló, born in Mallorca in 1957, is known both as a sculptor and a painter. The artist’s international breakthrough came in 1982 with his participation in documenta 7 in Kassel. In 1983 he made his first trip to Africa and lived for several years between Mallorca, Paris and Mali. Here he began to experiment with the production of his own pigments. In his abstract formal language and alchemical painting his works are close to those of Antoni Tapiès and Joan Miró. The large-format painting “Embestida” is immersed in a strong red, through which a semi-circular, black, relief-like track is drawn, which seems to move at great speed onto a bright white field of light. The painting extends beyond the edges of the canvas and appears torn off on the right. The artist generously processes the viscous paint in several layers, which lend the picture a strong plasticity. The top layer of red paint is sprayed on. The picture is abstract, but its formal language is reminiscent of the artist’s more figurative bullfighting pictures, which direct the viewer’s gaze from a bird’s eye view into the centre of the arena. “Embestida” means “attack”, and indeed the moment of the bull’s attack on the torero could be depicted here.

About the artist

The Spanish painter and sculptor studied two years at the Arts and Crafts School of Palma de Mallorca and then, in 1974, at the Fine Arts School of Barcelona. After finishing his studies he joined the Mallorcan conceptual avant-garde group ‘Taller Lunatic’, which is well-known for being critical of politics. Furthermore Barceló has always been very committed to questions regarding the environment and nature.
His extensive oeuvre reflects this commitment and is famous for raising questions about religion, anthropomorphism and the environment. Barceló’s complex notion of art plays out in a frequent use of organic materials and action painting. His sources of inspiration range from modern art forms such as Art Brut or Jackson Pollock’s abstract Expressionism to baroque paintings by Diego Velázquez, Tintoretto and Rembrandt. The extensive travels which he undertook during the 1980s became another major influence, especially the impressions of West Africa: the power of its light, the scorching sun and the rocky land- and seascape were a visual experience that may have reminded him of his native Mallorca.