You may remember that in the cold days of winter I went to see the Anselm Keiffer at the Bibliothèque nationale de France or the BNF. Here we were in Springtime and the wind still blew and even if it was a bit warmer, I really don’t like going there. It’s a somewhat dreary walk along the Seine and climbing those steps up and down makes me feel « creaky ». However there is always something interesting to see. This time around, I was going with Jerome and Laurent.
BnF
The BnF and the Musée national Picasso-Paris have organized a joint event dedicated to Miquel Barcelo. As yet, I have not been to the Picasso museum to see the other part of the event. Numerous pieces, never-presented before, really let us enter the Majorcan artist’s universe. Paintings and ceramics are presented at the Musée national Picasso-Paris while the engraved works are put on display at the BnF.
Before going on, Jerome and Laurent were in Majorca recently and sent me a photo of the Chapel Barcelo had decorated. In the same day, I reserved a short trip to visit that and his museum…..we have "seen him" too on this blog
A BLISSFUL DAY
Miquel Barcelo’s engraved works which are a major part of the artist’s production are rarely presented. This was the first time I had seen them. The artist, painter, sculptor and ceramist,
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| Ceramic and rather like Picasso |
has also been trying his hand at printing techniques since the beginning of his career. Rich and original, his printed works make up nearly 250 copper and wood engravings, lithographs, screen prints and stampings.
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| Double portrait - 1996 |
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| Mother - 2012 |
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| El Ball de carn - 1992 |
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| El Ball de carn - 1992 |
The BnF decided to present this little-known part of his work in parallel with drawings, sculptures, ceramics and paintings. Visitors we were to follow a thematic path built around a selection of 60 recent or very old prints accounting for the coherence and singularity of his artistic approach. It wasn’t a path which one had to follow and at moments I came back to look at something a little more closely than l had when I first came upon it.
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| Library lamp - 1986 |
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| Nocturn. Una pixerada - 1982 |
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| The shadow on the wall is art too ! |
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| Pinocchio Mort (dead) 1995 but here you don't see his nose |
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| Vanitas - 19885 |
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| Xylophagies - 1994 |
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| Xylophagies - 1994 |
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| The Painter kneeling - 1983 |
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| Wet animal -1999 |
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| 3 jo (Zanskar) 2013 |
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| The skull walking - 2000 |
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| Profile - 2014 (I love this) |
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| Autorretrat 1/2 Llull 1/2 cabrit - 1998 |
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| Torero (état 2) - 2015. (Thinking of Picasso?) |
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| Toro, toreador - 1990 |
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| Mallarmé - 2009 |
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| Note books |
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| His bookcase - 1984-85 |
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| Self explanatory....! |
But what is absolutely astounding is the monumental fresco made of soil and daylight created in situ across the full height of the windows of one of the main alley that the artist covered with a fine coat of clay before scraping the dried material. An outstanding introduction to the exhibition, this 190 metre-length over 6-meters high fresco immerses us in Barceló’s bewitching universe. When l first looked at it, I thought « l could do that » but then when looking more closely, there were mythological animals, skeletons and many other creatures. I don’t think we liked the clay effect too much as somehow it looked dirty. I might add that perhaps 90 meters would have been enough for me. It wasn’t so much that the work became repetitive - it didn’t - but the color seemed to have a rather macabre effect on me. Maybe if the sun had shone, the brownish coloring would have seemed less « dirty »…..I promise you that the following represent perhaps 10% of the total. It's fascinating looking at them closely to discover all those beasties !
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| See the cats ? |
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