Joan Miro
Born – Montroig, Spain 1893
Died – Palma, Spain 1983
Joan Miro trained in Barcelona at the school of Fine Art and the Academy Cali. His early work showed a diverse mixture of influences from Catalan art to Cezanne and the Fauves. In 1920, he settled in Paris where he was inspired by his Spanish compatriots, Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris. During the 1920s, his poetic and primitive style was strengthened by a close association with the Surrealists. He signed their Manifesto in 1924 and contributed to their exhibitions, sharing their determination to liberate on canvas the unconscious mind from logic and reason. His playful, emblematic Painting 1927 makes use of simplified semi-abstract forms sparsely dotted on a single, flat blue ground. The minimal composition of lines, shapes, signs and dots of colour recalls prehistoric gave paintings. The lurid background to the work appears to have been painted with the water-soluble blue paint often used on the outside of houses in Spain and Portugal. In 1940, Miro returned to Spain, where he lived mainly in Majorca. He produced ceramics in the 1950s, worked on murals in the USA and ceramic wall decorations in Paris. Joan Miro’s highly personal, mythological imagery inspired American artists such as Arshile Gorky and Alexander Calder.
Masterpieces:
- Harlequinade
- The beautiful Bird Reveals the Dawn to a pair of Lovers
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.