COLLECTION / 1945-1989 / Spain / Mariscal

730 originals, publications and documents.

Javier Mariscal was born in Valencia in 1950. At the beginning of the seventies he moved on to Barcelona in order to study graphic design at Escuela Elisava, but he soon left the school to follow his own intuitions and took his first steps in the world of the comic underground, taking part in magazines such as El Rrollo enmascarado and Star. His travelling companions were Nazario, Ceesepe, Farry, Pepichek..., living with some of them in an artistic commune on Comercio Street. The release of Nazario’s La piraña divina led to police persecution of the group, so Mariscal ran away to Ibiza with the Farriol brothers. There, they lived together with Montesol and Onliyú and took part in Nasti de plasti (1976). His most renowned creations of that period are undoubtedly the Garriris cartoons that where published in emblematic magazines of the moment such as El Rrollo enmascarado, Star, El Víbora and El Cairo.

Specialized critics consider Mariscal’s work of this period as a unique case in what has been called the boom of the Spanish comic underground because his language blends naive and acidic irony in a risky, powerful, innovative and communicative way.

During the eighties, Mariscal gradually abandoned comics to focus on design, painting, sculpture and projects related to image, working on advertising campaigns, furniture design, signage and interior design, creating branding for companies, political parties, institutions, hotels, etc. In 1989, he founded Estudio Mariscal and Cobi, a creation of his, was selected as the mascot for the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. He achieved fame and international standing, exhibiting at the Centre Georges Pompidou, ARCO fair, Documenta and Salone del Mobile di Milano, designing covers of The New Yorker, and holding retrospective exhibitions at the Design Museum in London and La Pedrera (Barcelona).

In 2010, he andFernando Trueba co-created the animated film Chico and Rita, awarded with several prizes in Best Animated Feature Film category—a Goya in 2010 and a European Film Award in 2011. Among the numerous awards Mariscal has won over his career the Spanish National Design Prize in 1999 and Gràffica Prize in 2016 stand out.

The Mariscal collection houses more than 700 items, original works making up the bulk of the collection, though there are also correspondence —with Miguel Farriol, Roger e Isa…, cards, flyers, objects, invitation cards, brochures, artist books (e.g., Metrópolis 1983), graphic work and more. Among the original works are drawings of the Garriris such as Michelín y Los Garriris, Bibendum & Les Garriris dans Panique à Futuropolis and Los Garriris presentan Este verano te vas a enamorar.



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