Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Munar (1675-1747) concentrated on religious motifs and scenes from classical mytho-
logy.
19th- & 20th-Century Mallorcan Art
The 19th century brought a wave of landscape artists to Mallorca. Many came from
mainland Spain, particularly Catalonia, but the island produced its own painters too.
More than half a dozen notables were born and raised in Palma. Joan O'Neille Rosiñol
(1828-1907) is considered the founder of the island's landscape movement. He and his
younger contemporaries Ricard Anckermann Riera (1842-1907) and Antoni Ribas Oliv-
er (1845-1911), both from Palma, were among the first to cast their artistic eyes over the
island and infuse it with romantic lyricism. The latter two concentrated particularly on
coastal scenes.
From 1890 a flood of Modernista artists from Catalonia 'discovered' Mallorca and
brought new influences to the island. Some of them, such as Santiago Rusiñol
(1861-1931), had spent time in Paris, which was then the hotbed of the art world. Locals
enthusiastically joined in the Modernista movement. Palma-born Antoni Gelabert Massot
(1877-1932) became a key figure, depicting his home city in paintings such as
Murada i
Catedral a Entrada de Fosc
(1902-04). Other artists caught up in this wave were Joan
Fuster Bonnín (1870-1943) and Llorenç Cerdà i Bispal (1862-1955), born in Pollença.
Meanwhile Llorenç Rosselló (1867-1902) was shaping up to be the island's most
prominent sculptor until his early death. A handful of Rosselló's bronzes as well as a se-
lection of works by many of the painters mentioned here can be seen in Es Baluard in
Palma.
By the 1910s and 1920s symbolism began to creep into local artists' vocabulary. Two
important names in Mallorcan painting from this period are Joan Antoni Fuster Valiente
(1892-1964) and Ramón Nadal (1913-99), both from Palma.
Contemporary
Towering above everyone else in modern Mallorcan art is local hero and art icon, Miquel
Barceló (b 1957, Felanitx). His profile has been especially sharp in his island home after
the unveiling in 2007 of one of his more controversial masterpieces, a ceramic depiction
of the miracle of the loaves and fishes housed in Palma's Catedral. The artist, who di-
vides his time between Paris and Mali's Dogon Country, has a studio in Naples and was a
rising star by the age of 25. Although he is best known as a painter, Barceló has worked
with ceramics since the late 1990s. However, the commission for the Catedral was on a
hitherto unimagined scale for the artist.
