Muelle

2024-10-16T15:19:18Z

95.18.76.205: "Madrilene cultural movida" is not a really recognized term

{{Short description|Spanish graffiti artist}}

{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name =
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| image = Firma de Muelle en calle Montera.jpg
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| caption = A restored Muelle tag on the [[Calle de la Montera]]
| native_name =
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| birth_name = Juan Carlos Argüello
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1965|09|23|df=}}
| birth_place = Madrid
| baptised =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|07|01|1965|09|23|df=}}
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| nationality = Spanish
| education =
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| known_for = First Spanish graffiti artist
| notable_works =
| style = ''Flechero''
| movement = Graffiti
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| signature =
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| memorials = {{plainlist|
* Commemorative plaque at 2 ''La calle de Carazo'', Madrid; ''Plaza Juan Carlos Argüello "MUELLE"''
* Madrid named in his honour<ref>{{cite web |title=Juan Carlos Argüello ¨MUELLE” Plaza |url=https://muelleart.com/en/project/plaza-de-juan-carlos-arguello-muelle/ |website=muelleart.com |access-date=29 March 2024}}</ref>
}}
| website = https://muelleart.com/en/
| module =
}}

'''Juan Carlos Argüello''' (23 September 1965 - 1 July 1995), known as '''Muelle''' {{IPA|es|ˈmwe.ʝe|}}, was a Spanish [[graffiti]] artist from [[Campamento (Madrid)|Campamento]], [[Madrid]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mtn-world.com/en/blog/2022/04/28/el-muelle-the-madrid-graffiti-legend/ | title=El Muelle: The Madrid Graffiti Legend | date=28 April 2022 }}</ref>

==Career==
Around 1980, during the ''[[Movida Madrileña]]'', Argüello started reproducing the [[logo]] he had designed on walls and public spaces of [[Madrid]]. It consisted of the word ''Muelle'' ([[Spanish (language)|Spanish]] for "[[spring (device)|spring]]"), or an R with an enclosing circle ([[trademark|®]]) and a line in the shape of a coiled spring ending in an arrowhead. At first, he used an ink marker and later spraypainted his signature extensively around Madrid (and to a lesser extent, in other Spanish localities). In the eighties, he improved his technique, using several colours in a technique labelled ''relleno'', wider borders known as ''grosor'', and 3-D effects.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abarca |first1=Javier |last2=Chambers |first2=Thomas |date=2019 |title=Punk Graffiti Archives: Madrid |page=51 |publisher=Urbanario|issn=2255-131X}}</ref>

==Influence==
His innovative style, along with the profusion of his tags, made his work popular. Many other Madrilenian youths, known as ''flecheros'' created their [[Tag (graffiti)|tags]] inspired by Muelle's, often ending strokes with arrowheads (''flechas''). The ''flechero'' scene developed at a time of cultural isolation, its practitioners being largely unaware of graffiti in the New York style.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abarca |first1=Javier |last2=Chambers |first2=Thomas |date=2019 |title=Punk Graffiti Archives: Madrid |page=14 |publisher=Urbanario|issn=2255-131X}}</ref> The spread of [[hip-hop culture]] in Spain in the late 1980s introduced the new graffiti styles developed in the [[United States]]. But, variations in Muelle's work basically kept his original design. Argüello appeared on Spanish [[television]] and in [[newspaper]]s.

==Death==
Argüello died of liver cancer on 1 July 1995 at the age of 29.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.spanishgraffiare.com/muelle_indicios.html | title=Muelle }}</ref> His obituary appeared in ''[[El País]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.spanishgraffiare.com/muelle_muelle.html | title=Muelle }}</ref>

==Legacy==
In 2022, the Spanish graffiti brand Montana Colors released a special edition aerosol can featuring Muelle's tag alongside a short documentary about him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mtn-world.com/en/blog/2022/04/28/el-muelle-the-madrid-graffiti-legend/ | title=El Muelle: The Madrid Graffiti Legend | date=28 April 2022 }}</ref>

At the behest of local [[PSOE]] politicians a tag of Argüello‘s in [[Barrio de La Latina (Madrid)|La Latina]], threatened with obliteration by building renovations, was officially protected by the [[Government of the Community of Madrid]] in 2024.<ref>{{cite web |title=Salvado el tercer graffiti de Muelle en Madrid: la Consejería de Cultura anuncia su protección y restauración |url=https://www.eldiario.es/madrid/somos/salvado-tercer-graffiti-muelle-madrid-consejeria-cultura-anuncia-proteccion-restauracion_1_11385689.html |website=eldiario.es |access-date=22 May 2024 |language=Spanish |date=21 May 2024}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Akim Hoste]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.today/20060312123133/http://www.iespana.es/madridoldschool/Muelle/fotos.htm Photographs at '''Madrid Old School Graffiti'''], an ''aficionado''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s web. {{dead link|date=October 2015}}
* ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VczRVahyqOk Muelle, The Madrid Graffiti Legend]''. Montana Colors documentary about the artist.

{{Street_Art}}

{{Authority control (arts)|country=ES}}

[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:Spanish graphic designers]]
[[Category:History of Madrid]]
[[Category:20th-century Spanish painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Spanish male artists]]
[[Category:Spanish male painters]]
[[Category:Spanish graffiti artists]]
[[Category:1965 births]]

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Muelle