Canaris II

The Mali years 1986–1989

Between 1986 and 1989, Miquel Barceló entered one of the defining periods of his career. His journeys to Mali and the African continent redirected his pictorial language towards earth, dust, erosion and the physical memory of matter.

Canaris II belongs to this celebrated group of works on paper. Its cluster of vessel-like forms resonates directly with the ceramic containers and storage jars that Barceló encountered in Mali: simple, ancient forms carrying the weight of landscape, ritual and survival.

The reduced palette, powdery surface and dense charcoal gestures place the work within the artist’s most sought-after late 1980s production — a moment in which Barceló’s international reputation was firmly consolidated.