Miquel Barceló, en chemin

To put an artist in perspective is a difficult exercise and monographs of contemporary artists are often weak in this field. That is not at all the case here. To initiate us to Miquel Barceló, the author refers to a wise man from the middle ages, Raymond Lulle as well as to ethnologist Marcel Griaule or Strindberg, Byron, Dante, be it Blaise Cendrars: this accomplished writer, born in 1928, met the great globetrotter in New York. We can definitely say that the book is as much a study of the unclassifiable Catalan artist as a manifesto of a certain art critic. All the fundamentals are included, from the first exhibition Barceló saw in Paris at the age of 17( “Jean Paulhan through his painters”), the chapel of the cathedral in Palma, the anima shaped ceramics, the “dogon” drawings, the paintings overflowing with matter. But this lifelong friend of Clement Greenberg and Mark Rothko knows how to wrap up these chronological references in an impressive network of influences and parallels: even those who are unwilling to check out http://www.fondationpierrearnaud.ch Barceló will be satisfied by this intelligent and transversal journey …

• Miquel Barceló, en chemin by Dore Ashton, Actes Sud, 2013, 250 p., €35.