Biography
Miquel Navarro is one of the main references of contemporary Valencian and Spanish art, with works exhibited in the best-known museums in the world, such as the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao, the Lambert Foundation in Brussels, the Georges Pompidou National Art Center in Paris, the Mie Prefectural Art Museum in Japan, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona or the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM).
The most international Valencian sculptor currently resides in Mislata, in the same neighborhood where he was born – La Morería – and where he grew up surrounded by the orchard that then separated him from the capital of Valencia. His workshop is also located there, whose facilities are being adapted to become a museum promoted by the Fundació Miquel Navarro, which the artist established in 2020 as a private non-profit foundation.
The beginning
Born in Mislata (Valencia) on September 29, 1945, since he was ten years old, he has given free rein to his artistic restlessness by playing with the mud of the irrigation ditches, making crafts and drawing on paper. The Nestlé stickers, with illustrations of “Wonders of the World,” stimulate his imagination and open his creative mind.
Between 1964 and 1968, he completed his training at the San Carlos Superior School of Fine Arts. Although he chose the specialty of sculpture, at that time, he dedicated himself to painting and drawing.
The series of enamel paintings “Insects and Larvae” (1968) belongs to this period, a colorful parade of pure-colored microorganisms.
Also notable from these early years is the set of large acrylic paintings with intense and contrasting coloring. His erupting volcanoes, tidal waves and earthquakes, as well as spirals, folds and first urban typologies show a young Miquel Navarro fascinated by energy and movement, by the hidden laws that govern the flow of nature and our cities.
In 1972, Miquel Navarro opted almost exclusively for sculptural creation and held his first individual exhibition at the Tassili gallery in Oviedo.
Cities
The following year, he sculpted “Ciutat 1973-1974”, the first of his cities, which he exhibited at the College of Architects of Valencia.
This type of compositions with multiple pieces of different sizes and materials, installed directly on the ground and where the vertical element stands out, will be very significant throughout its career.
Miquel Navarro’s cities largely shape his personal style as an artist, structured in volumes and spaces, which are conceived from the union between the purest sculpture and architecture. They are also a symbol of desire and power.
On the other hand, Navarro establishes in his cities organic similarities with the human body, where the heart, arteries and fluids make up a living and constantly functioning system.
Theme and materials
Among the most frequent themes of Miquel Navarro’s sculptures, warriors, totems, moons, buildings, chimneys, pyramids, pipes, insects and fountains stand out.
The artist also regularly uses sexual scenes and representations of the phallus in his work, both as a procreative force and as a symbol of desire and eroticism.
As for the materials, an evolution is observed: from the malleable clay and terracotta of his first works he moves on to lead and zinc – materials that predominate in his sculptural landscapes – as well as iron, aluminum, refractory, glass. , stone, plaster and various woods.
International recognition
After several exhibitions in centers and galleries in Spain, in 1978, Miquel Navarro participated in the group exhibition Katalanische Funts des 20. Jahrhunderts, at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Berlin.
But, really, 1980 is the key year for the international recognition of Miquel Navarro’s work, thanks to his participation in the group exhibition Images from Spain, organized at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and curated by Margit Rowell. This exhibition will then travel throughout the United States.
From that moment on, numerous exhibitions took place in different cities in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, some of which became the sculptor’s temporary residence.
Monumental slope
In 1984, with the creation, for the city of Valencia, of the 23-meter sculpture “Public Fountain” – later renamed by the Valencians as “The Pink Panther” –, a new direction opened in the artistic career of Miquel Navarro. which is characterized by large-format pieces permanently installed on public roads.
Today, more than fifty cities have these monumental works by Navarro. Three of them are in their own city, Mislata – Head with a waning moon (2001), L’Almassil (2010) and Caminante (2022) -, while another three are in Valencia capital: the already mentioned “Pink Panther” ( 1984), “El Parotet” (2003) and “Cabeza pensante” (2011).
Brussels, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Murcia, Castellón, Turís, Quart de Poblet, Vitoria and Torrelavega are other cities where the large sculptures of Miquel Navarro are integrated into the urban landscape.
Construction site audiovisual
Miquel Navarro has also made several forays into audiovisual art, filming three short films throughout his career: “Fuerte como el opio” (2011), “Mineral” (2013) and “On està la meua gosseta?” (2022). With a surrealist style, the sculptor assembles the meaning of art and the meaning of life in these short films.
On the other hand, his works are present in several successful films, such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Carne trémula (1997) and Julieta (2016).
Honors and recognitions
Miquel Navarro, considered one of the most personal voices in contemporary sculpture, has received many recognitions and awards throughout his career. Among them, the National Prize for Plastic Arts awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports in 1986 stands out; the Alfons Roig Award from the Provincial Council of Valencia (1987), the National Award from the Association of Art Critics (1995), the Distinction of the Generalitat of Valencia for Cultural Merit (2002), the VIII Julio González International Award – IVAM (2008). ) and the Medal of San Carlos, awarded by the Faculty of Fine Arts of Valencia (2010).
Furthermore, since 2009, Miquel Navarro has been a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In his entrance speech, which is titled ‘Childhood Games, Where Art is Forged’, he makes reference to three of his most admired artists, Julio González and Joseph Beuys, and Giorgio de Chirico.
Another recent recognition is that of Favorite Son of Mislata 2011, the same year that his work “Ciudad Vigía” becomes part of the UNESCO Artistic Heritage, making him the fifth Spanish artist present in this collection, along with Pablo Picasso. , Eduardo Chillida, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies.
In 2021, Miquel Navarro takes office as a new academic of the Royal Academy of San Carlos in Valencia. To celebrate his incorporation, he donates to the Academy his sculpture “Testa Pipe”, based on a work by Francesco Laurana (1471, Croatia).