Miquel Barceló (B.1957), Tres Puertas. Photo Sotheby's

signed, titled and dated VII. 90 on the reverse; mixed media on canvas; 53 by 61cm. 20 7/8 by 24in. Estimate 400,000-600,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1991

EXHIBITED: Zurich, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Miquel Barceló, Toros, 1990, no. 39, illustrated in colour

NOTE: Held in the same private collection since shortly after its execution more than twenty years ago, Miquel Barceló's exceptionally sculptural Tres Puertas is an exquisite archetype of the artist's most esteemed corpus, the Toros series. Palpably projecting towards the viewer in three-dimensions, the dramatic topography of this work emphatically heightens the focus and sense of event of the bullfight or Corrida. With the banks of spectators designated by circling swathes of paint material, the stark silhouette of matador and bull strike an especially climactic spectacle, casting long shadows in the dying sun at the end of their epic struggle. The accentuated fluctuation of the physical surface throws a schema of ever-changing shadows across the painting, which alters with our moving perspective and creates a sense of dynamism suggestive of the crowd's frenzied excitement. A singularly intense and concentrated interpretation of a subject that famously transfixed artists from Goya and Manet to Picasso and Bacon,

Tres Puertas is a powerfully evocative portrait of an inimitable and timeless event. The title Tres Puertas, together with the three black circles along the irregular bottom edge, references three gates into the arena of the plaza del toros, which typically include one for the entry of the parade into the arena; one via which the bull enters; another that is used by the picadors and through which a triumphant matador may be carried into the streets beyond; and one for the mule teams to drag out the dead bull's carcass (Gary Marvin, Bullfight, Oxford 1994, p. 11). The symbolism of three also connotes the three stages, or tercios, of the bullfight, respectively termed the tercio de varas; tercio de banderillas; and tercio de muerte. It is this final stage, the 'third of death', that is depicted in Barceló's painting, where the matador, holding the small red muleta cape, delivers the fatal blow with his sword.

This legendary moment that has been depicted and portrayed a great number of times, perhaps most memorably in literature by Ernest Hemingway in his 1925 novel The Sun Also Rises: "The bull was squared on all four feet to be killed, and Romero killed directly below us. He killed not as he had been forced to by the last bull, but as he wanted to. He profiled directly in front of the bull, drew the sword out of the folds of the muleta and sighted along the blade. The bull watched him. Romero spoke to the bull and tapped one of his feet. The bull charged and Romero waited for the charge, the muleta held low, sighting along the blade, his feet firm. Then without taking a step forward, he became one with the bull, the sword was in high between the shoulders, the bull had followed the low-swung flannel, that disappeared as Romero lurched clear to the left, and it was over." (Ernest Hemnigway, The Sun Also Rises, New York 2006 (first published 1925), p. 224).

Having travelled extensively across the world throughout the 1980s, fulfilling his ceaseless desire for cultural adventure, diversity and rich life-enhancing experiences, Barceló returned to his roots in Spain in the summer of 1990. His travels had taken him to places of extremity, uncertainty and insecurity across the globe and his return brought him back to his homeland in Mallorca. Here, armed with a rich new visual vocabulary inspired by his journeys, Barceló took on one of the most historic of all Spanish icons, the Corrida, in a series of works which are now widely recognised as his most important. Rooted in the historical significance of the bullfight amongst the Spanish people and their cultural and social heritage, Barceló creates a completely natural power and physicality from the paint itself. Although many other venerated artists famously confronted this subject before him, Barceló focuses on the entire context of the plaza del toros and presents the gladiatorial event together with the implications of an entire social event and communal activity. Condensing the country's culture into the bullfighting act, Barceló dramatically reveals the importance and mysticism surrounding the spectacle of man battling with Nature: absolving himself in it, taming it and finally overcoming it. As such, Barceló seems to have embraced and absorbed the heart of Spanish existence and tradition into one group of paintings. Seen within this context, the matador becomes a heroic symbol who embodies many of the virtues which guide Spanish life. The painting, by extension, becomes an image of blatant and unabashed heroic romanticism.

Sotheby's, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, London | 15 Feb 2012 www.sothebys.com