Artist Gone Wild – Miquel Barcelo
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Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo went wild at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, using 77,000 pounds (35,000 kilos) of paint to decorate the hall, stating that he intended to create a grotto with multi-colored stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
Miquel Barcelo works in ‘Hall XX’ at the European headquarters
of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo EPA
With his most ambitious project to date for the ceiling painting at the Human Rights Hall that sums up his idea of the world — a planet-cave that brings together men and that goes into the future — the artist says the hall reflects “infinity and the multiplicity of viewpoints.”
Spain’s United Nations ambassador said Madrid spent 7.4 million Euros towards redecorating the UN’s human rights office. Javier Garrigues said the government paid for 40% of the 14.5 million Euro redecoration budget.
Photo EPA
Photo EPA
Photo EPA
Photo EPA
The renowned artist is widely known for his work on the gothic cathedral in Palma de Mallorca, locally known as La Seu, for which Barcelo created a ceramic panorama that took him 7 years to complete. It stands on a magnificent setting directly by the sea-front, with a slightly elevated position.
Palma de Mallorca, or La Seu. Photo AFP / Getty
Photo AFP / Getty
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
The project was carried out between 2001 and 2006, entailing a 985 foot (300 sq. meter) ceramic polychromatic mural that represents the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and fish according to the Gospel of Saint John.
Barcelo produced the ceramic mural in Naples in collaboration with the ceramist, Vincenzo Santoriello.
The project on the chapel also included five 39-foot (12-meter) high stained glass windows, made in Toulouse in Jean-Dominique Fleury’s workshop, and liturgical furniture created with stone from Binissalem.
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
Photos Mallorca
It was officially opened on February 2, 2007 in a ceremony officiated by the Bishop of Mallora, Jesús Murgui and presided over by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain.
The refurbishment of the Cathedral by Barcelo makes an important contemporary precedent for the modernist architects, Antoni Gaudi, Josep Maria Jujol and Joan Rubio that was carried out between 1903 and 1914.
La Seu was originally built on the site of a pre-existing Arab mosque. After the re-conquest of the island from the hands of the Moors, construction began in 1230 and was completed in 1601.
In 2006, Barcelo collaborated with the French-Serbian dancer and choreographer Joseph Nadj on a mixed-media piece called ‘Paso Doble’ which they performed at the Festival d’Avignon in Palma.
The performance represented the process of the creation of a pictoric work of art. The pair worked with a mural of fresh clay to design their creation.
Photo AFP / Getty
Photo AFP / Getty
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
Photo Mallorca
Entitled ‘Mobili,’ the following sculpture was exhibited at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, south of France, in 2002. Spain’s King Juan Carlos and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend the unveiling ceremony of the hall in Geneva next Tuesday.
‘Mobili’ Photo EPA
Born in Felanitx, Majorca in 1957, Miquel Barcelo was first introduced to the world of painting as a child by his mother, who is also an artist in the landscape tradition of Majorca. His work has gained broad international recognition over the past 20 years, widely being regarded as one of the most important artists working today for the extraordinary diversity and originality of his work.
Photo AFP / Getty
Barcelo has produced artwork that ranges from enormous and small-scale canvasses, backdrops for opera, murals, engravings to terracotta and a wealth of ceramic sculptures, creating sculptured polychrome vessels, creatures from an imaginary bestiary, and free-standing sculptures rendered in bronze.
His unorthodox techniques, developed in his travels from Paris to Africa, and the esteemed kilns in Vietri, Italy, have enabled him to work in many ceramic idioms, and to invent forms often derived from the natural history of his native island, Mallorca.
The artist moved to Barcelona in the mid-70′s, and began his studies in Fine Arts in 1975 where the use of materials arranged in thick layers became widely featured in his artwork, experimenting with pigments and new painting techniques, and incorporating both organic and inorganic objects such as sand, pebbles, rice, spaghetti, fibers, straw, newspapers, and seaweed.
Photo Irish Museum Modern Art
Photo Irish Museum Modern Art
His first individual exhibition was in 1974 at the Galería d’Art Picarol, Cala d’Or, Majorca, where he exhibited a series of drawings with insects and mollusks on printed paper.
Barcelo achieved international acclaim when he took part in Kassel’s Documenta VII in 1982. He divides his time between Paris, Mali and Majorca, and has made frequent trips to western Africa to fuel his imagination with figures and myths.
In 1991 Barcelo built a floating studio which he sailed down the Niger River, producing works of canoes and life of the river and its banks, drawn not to the exoticism of the area but rather for the daily life of its inhabitants, which he presents in a series of portraits, domestic scenes, landscapes and still lifes. In 2003, he received the Prince of Asturias award for Plastic Arts.
Photo Irish Museum Modern Art
Photo Jablonka Galerie
Photo Jablonka Galerie
Photo Reuters / Jon Nazca
Miquel Barcelo is silhouetted next to his work “Crane aux Allumettes” at his exhibition entitled “Obra Africana” (“African work”) at the Contemporary Art Center in Malaga, southern Spain November 11, 2008. Barcelo’ s exhibit will run until February 15, 2009.
Sculpture “Mono” (“Monkey”) by Miquel Barcelo at the Contemporary Art Center in Malaga, southern Spain November 11, 2008. Photo Reuters / Jon Nazca
Barcelo’s amazing creative output has been compared to such great Spanish masters as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Antoni Tapies and to outstanding contemporary European artists such as Francesco Clemente and Anselm Kiefer.
Miquel Barcelo – Human Rights Hall in Spanish
Miquel Barcelo – Palma de Mallorca
Miquel Barcelo’s Paso Doble
Miquel Barcelo’s Works
Sources: fundacionprincipedeasturias.org, Irish Museum Modern Art, and Mallorca
Tags:art artist artists arts ceramics La Seu Miquel Barcelo paintings Palma de Mallorca Cathedral Paso Doble sculptures UN Human Rights Hall
abstraction is what he looking for
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Well, he is talented for sure, but UN shouldn’t hire him to decorate the Office. He is too abstract for them
Urgh…………..GROSS !!!!!!!!
What a huge waste of money, for completely ugly crap. It is a tradgedy that the UN spent 23 million dollars on stupid paint dripping from a ceiling instead of actually helping people around the world. Modern art today is a complete joke, always has been, and always will be. By the way, I myself am a formally trained artist, who never has, and never will, take a penny of public money to support this kind of rape of publically-funded agencies. Talk about “The Emperors New Clothes”!!! Everyone (well, everyone but me and a few others with common sense) is afraid to call this tripe what it is, ugly, pathetic, wasteful drivel.
that’s pretty insane!
I wonder if this guy makes millions like that hack who sold spliced lamb in formaldehyde for $2 million?
incredible!the picture of ‘Hall XX” are really amazing and great! i didn´t know about this! but is beautiful, I really love art, and i´m very happy when I find things like this!
[...] Artist Gone Wild Miquel Barcelo Posted by root 3 hours ago (http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca) With his most ambitious project to date for the ceiling painting at the human rights hall that the refurbishment of the cathedral by barcelo makes an important online news new comment on intriguing and bizarre art of bubbles in photography copyright 2009 Discuss | Bury | News | Artist Gone Wild Miquel Barcelo [...]
[...] Sorry to stray a bit off topic here, but just had a looky at the EU room at UN headquarters in Geneva Switzerland dedicated last fall.Check out the artist Miquel Barcelo designs of the room! http://www.lifeinthefastl…e-wild-miquel-barcelo/art [...]
This is art at it’s finest…truly a gift to the world
Barcelo is a very talented artist, he dosent’ recurgitate past successes. Let me say to the conservatives who are outraged by the money spent on abstract structural art – painting something to look like an object or person is fine, but it’s not very dynamic for a huge UN display. Abstract art in this case works to engage the viewer, one walks through this room and is conscious of mans creativity and sensitivity directly above, and this is just one way of making us aware of human beings vulnerability and perhaps, leads us to consider that we should not so easily and uncaringly trample on other’s rights..rights to live and create.
that’s great, i wish art schools and colleges would show stuff like this guy’s to the students. in brazil, at least, it’s STILL all about marcel duchamp (that was almost 100 years ago).