, Palma, Mallorca Barceló was born at
Felanitx,
Mallorca. A year later he returned to Mallorca to participate in the happenings and actions of protest of the group "Taller Llunàtic", a conceptual avantgarde group. He also took part in the creation of their artist periodical
Neon de Suro (21 issues from 1957 to 1982). A year after his return to Mallorca, he had his first one-man show at the Palma Museum. Initially, the Avant-garde, Art Brut and American abstract Expressionism (e.g. Pollock had a big impact on him) influenced Barceló's work. On the other hand, he was always particularly interested in the Baroque paintings of
Diego Velázquez,
Tintoretto and
Rembrandt.
Jean Dubuffet inspired Barceló in adopting an experimental attitude. Throughout the 1980s, he travelled extensively across Europe, the United States and West Africa – always returning to Paris which became a second home and where he set up a second studio. The time Barceló spent in different countries, his nomadism or peripatetic habits essentially influenced and inspired his work, most strongly the impressions of West Africa. His participation at the "Documenta 7",
Kassel, Germany, in 1982 gained him international recognition. In 1983 he moved to
Naples for five months. Here he realized some works made with volcanic cinder, for an exhibition at the
Lucio Amelio's atelier. In this occasion he also answered the international call of the Neapolitan gallerist, after the 1980s earthquake, in which he asked the major contemporary artist of that time to create a work for the Terrae Motus collection. His work ''L'ombra che trema'', now exhibited at the
Royal Palace of Caserta, as he declared: "It's a self portrait: I made myself in the painting act. the shadow seems to reflect the other part of myself and at the same time is the destruction of the order." In 1986 he received Spain's
National Award for Plastic Arts. In 2004 Barceló's watercolours, illustrating Dante's
Divine Comedy, were shown at the Louvre Museum in Paris. For
Palma Cathedral's Chapel of Sant Pere, Barceló covered the entire chapel with terracotta, decorating it with images related to the sixth chapter of the
Gospel of St. John, the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish, a theme chosen because the chapel is dedicated to the
Last Supper. In 1990 he designed the costumes and stage sets for
Manuel de Falla's opera
El retablo de maese Pedro at the
Opéra-Comique in Paris, and in 2006 at the
Festival d'Avignon he was part of a performance with choreographer Joseph Nadj. On 18 November 2008 the Spanish government officially presented Miquel Barceló's latest immense work of art in the
United Nations Palace of Nations in
Geneva. The work of art is a massive sculptural installation located on the domed ceiling of the building's newly created Chamber XX of Human rights and Alliance of Civilizations. The work consists of 1500 m2 of multi-coloured stalactite forms for which the artist used 100 tons of paint, that appear to be dripping from the ceiling. In 2010, Barceló was invited to teach at a workshop by the
École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles. Barceló's work (paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics) is nowadays represented by Tobias Mueller Modern Art in
Zürich, Galerie
Bruno Bischofberger in Zürich and Acquavella Galleries in
New York City. In 2017, Miquel Barceló has been elected a vice-president of
CISAC at the 2017 General Assembly in Lisbon. In 2017 he was invested Doctor Honoris Causa by the
University of Salamanca, as part of the commemoration of the VIII centenary of this University. ==Exhibitions==