31/08/2001
by James Gaskell

On the 29^th August, 2001 during a summer vacation to the island of Ibiza, the artist Juan Muñoz tragically suffered a fatal heart attack, aged 48 years old. Born in Madrid in 1953 where he lived and worked, his untimely death occurred just at the time when the artist began to enjoy significant success both artistically and commercially. The following article was written before his death.

Juan Muñoz’s extensive installation presently occupying the vast turbine hall of the Tate Modern in London (which opened in June 2001) confirms the acclaimed status of the artist which he has established through previous installations such as Untitled Monument (London) at the London Hayward Gallery in 1992; Conversation Piece which consisted of twenty-two individual figures at the Dublin Museum of Modern Art in 1994; and A Place Called Abroad in 1996 at the DIA Center New York. The highly evocative nature of his installations has brought numerous curators eager to work with him, such as James Lingwood of the London based Artangel Trust, who curated the major exhibition "Juan Muñoz: Monologues and Dialogues" in 1996. He is now recognised as one of the leading European sculptors who have transformed the language of sculpture in recent years. Last year he was awarded Spain’s prestigious art prize, the Premio Nacional de Artes Plasticas and a retrospective will be shown at the Hirschorn Museum, Washington DC in October 2001 and will then travel onto the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

But the very nature of the specificity of his work, although highly effective, presents limitations in terms of its commodification. This is a problem that is inseparable from site specific art, and has been dealt with in a number of ways by artists and art dealers in the past and sold as spin-offs. In this respect Muñoz has largely resisted the temptation to cash in on projects. However a drawing by Muñoz titled Positive Corner, Documenta IX (1992) did recently find its way into the open market and fetched the not insignificant sum of $ 23,750 (€ 26,140) at Sothebys in May this year.

Of Muñoz’s sculptures, their engaging presence ensures substantial prices and single figures consistently fetch between $ 50,000-70,000 (€ 55,000-77,040) at auction. An untitled bronze figure from 1991 sold for $ 60,000 (€ 66,000) at Christie's London last year; a 1990 bronze figure with wood made $ 70,300 (€ 77,360) and another 1990 bronze figure made $ 55,000 (€ 60,490) at the same auction house in 1999. The consistency was repeated across the Atlantic: a 1991 bronze figure making $ 55,000 (€ 60,490) at Sotheby's New York in 1999. More complex sculptures can command six-figure prices as seen by Six Terracottas (1991) which sold for $ 112,500 (€ 123,720) at Sotheby's New York in 1999, and After de Kooning (1995) which made $ 129,000 (€ 141,870) the previous year at the same auction house. But whilst Muñoz's figures are in demand, works from his other series fare less well in the open market, with real interest only being shown in his "balcony" works such as Occupied Balcony (1991) which sold for $ 47,600 (€ 52,350) at Sotheby’s London in 1999.

Few commercial galleries (such as Galeria Senda in Barcelona) have examples of Muñoz’s work. Instead he has successfully relied on commissions, with a pluralistic approach as in the radio piece A Man in a Room, Gambling commissioned by Artangel in 1987; and pieces being obtained by museums, the Tate Modern London, the MOMA New York, and the Hirschorn Museum Washington are amongst those who have already acquired works. He is perhaps a fine example of how an artist can succeed outside the conventional mechanism of the art market.