EL PAÍS, on its 50th anniversary, invites Miquel Barceló to present his work in its ARCOmadrid space

• Under the title El pintar diario (The daily painting), the artist presents around 50 works created on the printed edition of the newspaper and on other publications such as Le Monde, Libération, La Repubblica, and Giornale di Sicilia

Miquel Barceló is the guest artist selected by EL PAÍS, leading one of the most significant proposals at ARCOmadrid 2026. At the newspaper’s stand (7C29), which can be visited from March 4 to 8, the artist from Mallorca is exhibiting almost 50 pieces painted on newsprint under the title El pintar diario (The daily painting). The exhibition is part of the newspaper’s 50th-anniversary program.

Barceló has maintained a close relationship with the newspaper for decades, using it both as an artistic medium and as an informational vehicle. He buys, reads, and paints on Spanish, French, and Italian newspapers. For him, working on a newspaper is an extension of his creative process and also a way of being in the world: “These works are paintings just like my canvases,” he explained in the interview published in El País Semanal.

The selection brings together drawings, paintings and collages created on copies of EL PAÍS, Le Monde, Libération, La Repubblica, and Giornale di Sicilia, among others. It also includes historic front pages of EL PAÍS that he has worked on, such as the May 8, 2000 front page reporting the murder of journalist José Luis López de Lacalle.

Newsprint has long been a recurring material in Barceló’s artistic career. He has used it in engravings, etchings and large‑scale works, such as the horses and Icaruses he painted in 1998 in the church of Santa Eulalia dei Catalani in Palermo.

Barceló divides his time between Mallorca and Paris. He creates in his studios in Vilafranca de Bonany and Farrutx, as well as in his Paris studio in the Le Marais district. He is currently preparing three tapestries for Notre‑Dame Cathedraland remains involved in the project for the Glory façade of the Sagrada Familia.

With this proposal at ARCOmadrid 2026, Barceló and EL PAÍS celebrate half a century of the newspaper’s history through a vision that transforms the ephemeral into the enduring.