Untitled - Es Baluard

Antoni Miralda

Untitled

Date: 1973

Technique: Treated plaster

Dimensions: 92 x 57 x 52,5 cm

Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma

Reg. no.: 749

On display

This sculptural piece is representative of some of the most significant characteristics of the work of Antoni Miralda, such as those in which he uses elements from popular and mass culture and Appropriationism. In it, we can see an army of toy soldiers climbing up a classic figure of Cupid, re-appropriated by the artist and not produced by him. It is a replica of Falconet’s Menacing Cupid (1758), which was donated to him by the Louvre. The soldiers, too, have been used recurrently by the artist since 1967, and throughout his long career he has been deeply concerned with the question of war and violence. In his creations, we find pacifist pleas and parodies of mythologies of violence through elements like tin soldiers. His interest in denouncing violence is the result of his own personal experience, as the artist was a recruit in the Spanish army, a period when he experienced a suffocating atmosphere which he would always feel the need to decry.

Another of the great themes of his artistic career – partly because of his relationship with the gastronome Montse Guillén – is the ephemeral art of food and the creation of the Food Cultura Museum project in 2003, a huge archive related to food. In short, Miralda is an artist without prejudices, bold and fearless in mobilising for controversial issues. The concept of the work as a process is extremely important in his artistic production. Many of his projects are only documented in photographs, videos and films.

I.A.