Childhood, Education and Profession
Ricard Mira was born in Valencia de Alcántara, Cáceres, Spain, on
November 6, 1952. He was the third of four children. At the age of
eleven months, his Valencian parents moved to Catalonia. First they
established themselves in Mollet del Vallès and later in Sant Fost de
Campsentelles. As a child he attended the school at can Mas Bagà, at
the lower area of the village. Through his childhood he enjoyed (and
stood out because of that) making his own toys, which he built from
wood scraps and pieces of iron he used to find in a foundry near his
home.
At fourteen he began his working life as a diemaker apprentice at the
Nacional Motor SA motorcycle company, and soon stood out for his
manual skills, which led him to join Derbi’s racing team, which at
that time won the World Championship five times. His desire for
learning caused him to take industrial studies and at sixteen he
earned the Industrial Draftsman’s title at the Escola Industrial de
Terrassa. The leaders of the two-wheel factory had him split his
working time between the Diemaking and Racing Departments, where he
was a key component as he did the most delicate pieces for Derbi
motorcycles, the popular Red Bullets that competed in the World
Championship.
When he was seventeen, he suffered his first break of schizophrenia and
received a treatment with electroshock and drugs until age 21. In
1975 he married Pepi, and later they had a son, Ricard. When his job
outlook was promising, being recognized both as a first officer
diemaker and as an extraordinary expert in building parts for
world-class motorcycles, his schizophrenia worsened and became
chronic, which rooted out his excellent career prospects and
forced him to leave the job market at the precarious age of 29.
The sculptor
His illness made him have too much time for thinking. The situation
became distressing to him and he decided that he had to do something
to release the stress caused by the disease. He determined to start
working on iron sculpture, clay-modeling and wood-carving, building on
his education as a drafstman and his experience as a diemaker. The
good results obtained in the initial period and the acceptance of his
work made him decide establishing a studio-workshop at his home’s
ground floor in the village of Martorelles for creating his increasingly
complex works.
Ricard Mira has gone through two very different artistic periods. In
the first one he does especially metal-working and wood-carving, and
even mixes both techniques in some works. He also makes some works
from clay. In the second period he specializes in ironwork, and takes
Pablo Gargallo’s metal sculptures as a source of inspiration.
Devoted to sculpture for almost thirty years, he has become a
reference sculptor, has achieved renown and has earned admiration and
respect within the art world.
Ricard Mira is a member of Reial Cercle Artístic de Barcelona and of
Club Social La Llum, an organization at Mollet del Vallès dedicated to
the mentally ill. He often collaborates with Federació Salut Mental
Catalunya, the Catalan federation of the associations formed by
relatives of the mentally ill.
Exhibitions
Throughout his artistic career, Ricard Mira has displayed his work in
over one hundred exhibitions in Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia,
Germany, France and the United States. It is praiseworthy the
group exhibition he made with the Reial Cercle Artístic de
Barcelona, of which he is a member, at the old city hall of León,
Spain.
In his professional trajectory, one must single out his participation
at the 56th Frankfurt Book Fair’s Art Hall, Germany. Also, in 2007
and 2009 he participated at the 13th and 15th Fira de Forjadors i
Artistes del Ferro at Besalú, Girona. In 2009 and 2010 he took part
in the Trobada de Forjadors i Artistes del Ferro, Alpens. He
participated at the event Forja Viva in 2010 and 2012, held in
Barcelona.
He has collaborated on events in the city of Mollet del Vallès
(Barcelona) such as Mollet Art 95, and it should be especially noted
his delivery of a copper relief to HM Juan Carlos I, King of Spain,
during the inaugural ceremony for the 47th World Shooting
Championship, held in Mollet del Vallès in 1998.
Jaume Rifà
Local History Scholar
