Contemporary art on Mallorca: a shortcut for collectors

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Mallorca has more art for sale per square kilometre than almost any comparable stretch of the Mediterranean, and most of it is aimed at people leaving on Sunday. For a collector the interesting part of the island is much smaller and much easier to navigate.

The anchor points

Contemporary art on Mallorca has a centre of gravity in the southwest, around Andratx, where CCA Andratx has been showing contemporary work for years. Palma adds galleries in the old town, and the harbours occasionally host large-format work in the open, as Port Adriano did in 2016 with pieces installed in the frames designed by Philippe Starck.

Among the artists working on the island is the German neo-expressionist Markus Tollmann, born 1963, who divides his time between studios here and in Liechtenstein and held a solo exhibition at CCA Andratx in 2024.

Farbintensives Frauenporträt von Markus Tollmann in Rot, Pink, Türkis und Gelb

Why the island suits loud painting

Mallorcan interiors are pale. Limestone, lime plaster, linen, oak, a lot of white and a great deal of light. That palette is beautiful and slightly inert, and it does something specific to painting: it swallows subtlety and rewards conviction. A canvas with strong colour fields and torn contours does not fight a Mallorcan room. It completes it.

The same works often look better here than in a northern gallery, because they were built for hard light in the first place.

Buying from the studio rather than the middle

Studio purchases have three advantages that matter later. You see a body of work rather than one selected piece. You can agree format, palette and delivery window for a commission before anything is stretched. And the paperwork is straight: a hand-signed certificate of authenticity with catalogue number, provenance and reference photograph, with the catalogue maintained by the studio for future provenance.

Practical details follow the same logic. Shipping is fully insured through specialist art logistics, with a white-glove option including hanging for larger formats, and visits happen by appointment on Mallorca or in Liechtenstein. Current work is listed in the exhibition and studio overview.

What the work is about

Tollmann is a painter and sculptor whose subjects are human encounter, the portrait, movement and the emotional force of colour. He grew up in the house of his father, the artist Günther Tollmann, took private drawing lessons with Joseph Beuys from 1978 and worked in Francis Bacon’s London studio from 1981. In 2005 the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg gave him a solo exhibition with a monographic publication.

Lithografie von Markus Tollmann in Gold, Magenta und Orange mit einer Figur unter breitem Hut

That biography is not decoration. It explains a hand that treats a face as an argument rather than a likeness, which is precisely why the paintings hold a wall.

A collector’s short list

See the work in daylight, never only on a screen.
Take the wall measurements and the usual viewing distance with you.
Ask what the artist is working on now, not only what is available.
Read the certificate before the invoice.

Four points, one afternoon. That is the whole shortcut.

See the work and arrange a viewing

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Where does contemporary art happen on Mallorca?

Mainly in the southwest around Andratx, where CCA Andratx shows contemporary work, plus galleries in the old town of Palma and occasional large-format installations in the harbours.

Why does large-format colour work well in Mallorcan interiors?

Island interiors are pale and full of hard light, which flattens subtle painting and rewards strong colour fields. A canvas built for that light completes the room instead of competing with it.

What are the advantages of buying directly from a studio?

You see a whole body of work rather than a single selected piece, you can agree format and palette for a commission in advance, and the documentation comes straight from the source.