Miquel Barceló's Journey from Early Works to Parietal Art

Miquel Barceló's career spans from early experimental works using perishable materials like pigment, flour, and minced meat to monumental projects evoking cave art. His exhibition 'Barceló avant Barceló (1973-1982)' at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse (20 Nov 2009 – 28 Feb 2010) and earlier at the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca showcases his formative years before his breakthrough at Documenta 1982. Barceló's practice is characterized by a pendulum-like movement between contradictions, such as shifting from black to white series or from conceptualism to figurative painting. His interest in parietal art was sparked by visits to Lascaux, Altamira, and especially Chauvet cave, where individualised animal depictions struck him. This influence manifests in his ceramic chapel at Palma Cathedral (2007), the ceiling of the Palais des Nations in Geneva (2008), and the performance 'Paso Doble' with Josef Nadj (2006). Barceló's concept of 'desmourir' (un-dying) posits that painting incarnates the subject, unlike photography which disembodies. He continues to paint portraits from life, exploring the inseparability of form and content.