Javier Mariscal in Paris

Ever since he was ten years old, it's by drawing that Mariscal has managed to capture reality. He claims that it is by sketching something that he comprehends it. For proof, he says that he doesn't "write" but he "draws letters".

In 1979, his coup de maitre was giving Barcelona a graphic identity. Three times three letters organized in a square: Bar-Cel-Ona, or Bar-Sky-Wave in Catalonian. This city is his port of call. He grew up in Valencia but dropped anchor in Barcelona in 1970, at age 20. That's where he began his studies at Elisava. This art school taught him one important lesson: he'd rather follow his own creative impulses. He dropped out shortly after that. Thereafter, his kaleidoscope of activities focuses on painting and drawing: illustration, cartoon, graphic design, interior decoration, communication, sculpture, furniture design, movies, and shows. First to emerge from Mariscal's fabulous toy box are comics. It was a perfect time to explore underground art. Spain, still under the strangle hold of Franco's garrote, will soon glisten in a democratic "Suit of Lights". Together with Max and other artists, he launches El Rollo Enmascarado, which was sold by street vendors but outlawed after only two months. That's where Los Garriris, cartoon characters of Cubist inspiration, were born.

Soon joined by Julian the fishing dog, Los Garriris bounced around the pages of El Vibora. Joost Swarte will publish them in the Netherlands. Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly will feature them in Raw: "In our group, Mariscal was the only artist not su?ering from terminal depression", says Spiegelman, "He was happy. I've always marveled at Javier Mariscal his intrepidity, his exuberance and the beauty of his art". As for Mariscal's objets d'art, they're like cartoon characters. Take Duplex, the multicolored, rippled bar stool: it's become an authentic icon of the '80's. Mariscal teamed up with the Italians from the Memphis Group, founded by Ettore Sotsass and shook things up among them. In 1989, his character Cobi was selected to be the o?cial Barcelona Olympic Games mascot. This Catalan shepherd dog, inspired by the Picasso version of Velasquez's Las Meninas didn't get unanimous support in the beginning. However, the unconventional doggie was quick to gain the upper hand and set the record of the most profitable mascot in the history of the games. Cobi's little brother, Twipsy, was chosen as the Hanover 2000 Expo's mascot and continues to live through Internet videos.

Mariscal's creatures have a way of bouncing around. They morph into different things, like Julian, the dog that inspired a chair design for the Magis collection, or the line of children's furniture, named after his youngest children, eight years old twins.

Because Mariscal had too much energy to create on his own, he founded Estudio Mariscal with a handful of associates in an abandoned tannery. In 1989, when Macintosh computers were still as slow as vacuum tubes, the studio's activities, with a staff of thirty people, were soaring. With the help of an orchestra that matched his talent, Mariscal was able to achieve tasks of symphonic proportions. In 2002, he took charge of the integral design project at the hotel Domine in Bilbao, nestled by the Guggenheim Museum designed by Gehry. This included the staff uniforms, the façade, the website, and the 26 meter long cypress fossil that crosses the atrium. His studio was now going at full tilt, but Mariscal didn't stop drawing or viewing the world as a cartoon.

In 2006, he introduced Crash!, his latest sculpture of a 1959 real size vintage Chevrolet exploding in an improbable disaster. The dismembered car is as dynamic as a Duchamp painting, as horrible as a journalist's photo, and as light as a comic strip by Franquin. Thereafter, Mariscal, true to himself, went back to his pencil case, sketched the Chevrolet and produced a serigraphy of it.

The feature animation movie Chico & Rita (in theatres July 7), illustrated by Mariscal, shares the same energy: mix of techniques, transfers and ricochets. The author went to Havana and New York to capture the reality of the two cities. He bounces from modern day dilapidated buildings to the palaces they originally were in 1945. The soundtrack, composed of jazz standards, follows the same concept: a mix of gramophone records and digital sounds. With the publication by Denoel of the graphic novel (June 6), Mariscal completes the cycle of Chico & Rita's destiny: they're going back to the drawings they originally came from.

At times both obvious and elusive, always in synch with himself, Mariscal has as many facets to his art like as a cat has multiple lives.
François Landon (translation: Elisabeth Hockley)