FC Barcelona presents their 125th anniversary poster designed by Miquel Barceló | News from Catalonia

Josep Segrelles was responsible for the commemorative works for the 25th anniversary of FC Barcelona. He was followed by Sebastian Rey Padilla (50 years old), Joan Miró (75 years old) and Antoni Tapies, the creator of the centenary emblem of the Barça club in 1999. Now Miquel Barceló collects the legacy of all of them and joins the recognized and prestigious one ready to produce the poster for the 125th anniversary of Barça. The innovative work was presented on Tuesday at the Auditori 1899 at the foot of the works of the New Spotify Camp Nou, full of club guests who applauded and celebrated the work of the Mallorcan artist. Every 25 years, Barça gets a famous artist who creates more than just posters, placards or emblems; They have already become icons in the history of Barcelona.

“I’ve been working on this for months. I started painting in Mallorca, then in Barcelona, ​​in different versions, and finished in Paris. I asked for more time because it turned out what I wanted. But it was fun,” admitted at the presentation Barceló, who felt a responsibility to feel like a big fan of the culé. “The work talks about a collective gaming system. There are many figures inside and there is a football team. Even vegetables, minerals, animals…” added the Mallorcan genius. The figure of a player appears on the canvas, dressed in the colors of the club, and inside there are many other human figures representing his team with its first team players and substitutes. In addition, the player is decorated with various figures, especially those related to the sea, elements that can be associated with football.

Barcelona President Joan Laporta, who was present at the event, was proud: “Barcelo is the best artist in the world. We wanted Miro, Tapies and Barcelo. The work is full of light, so much so that it illuminates the 125-year history of the club. This is a step in the life of Barça. The poster has life. When I saw it, I was excited.” The work is part of the long career of the 67-year-old artist, sculptor and ceramist from Felanitx (Mallorca), for which he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts and the Creu de Sant Jordi, and appears after the creation of the works. such as the Santisimo Chapel of Mallorca Cathedral, the ceiling of the Hall of Human Rights and the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Geneva or the dome of the Mercat de les Flores in Barcelona.

Before Barcelo, a long list of names graced the club’s various anniversaries. Segrelles made a poster for Barça’s silver jubilee in 1924. The Valencian artist and poster depicted a young woman sitting on the club’s shield, holding a ball in her hands and raising a Barça flag in the other. Next was Rey Padilla, one of the most recognized poster artists in Spain at the time. A simple and sober image during the period of reconstruction of the club and the complete consolidation of its modern identity, which later became the culmination of one of the greatest decades of culé, the 1950s.

But the biggest influences were Miro and Tàpies, both born in Barcelona. The former created the 75th anniversary poster, one of the most famous, just a year before the opening in 1975 of the Joan Miró Foundation, responsible for disseminating his legacy. With his dreamlike style, very simple graphics, thick black strokes, drops and splashes of paint – with the presence of primary colors – one of the greatest Catalan representatives of abstract painting captured the Barcelona shield and the name “Barça” on the poster. surrounded by different figures. Work began during the expansion of Blaugrana.

The Platinum Jubilee poster was very popular and 25 years later, at Barça’s centenary celebrations in 1999, it was led by Tàpies. Influenced by Miró, the master artist and avant-garde sculptor symbolically used the iconography of the club, Catalan identity and culture: four ascending scarlet arrows stretched the name of Barcelona, ​​located on the football boot, between different textures and lines. Now, on its 125th anniversary, Barceló continues. A collection of works by great artists that symbolize the identity of the club throughout its development, but also reflect the social context and culture, also linked to the Catalan culture, of the moment that made them icons of its history.