Joan Miró

Catalan surrealist painter, sculptor and ceramist (1893-1983). He attended the Faculty of Fine Arts of Barcelona and the Gali Academy. His work prior to 1920 (date of his first trip to Paris) reflect the influence of different tendencies, like the pure and bright colours used in Fauvism, shapes in Cubism, influences of the Catalan folk art and of the Byzantine frescos in Catalan churches. In this trip to Paris he got acquainted with André Breton, developing, thus, a tendency to the surrealist painting. From 1930 on, he started to get interest in the object in shape of collages, practise that would lead to his incursion into the surrealist sculpture.  It was in this decade that his “tormented monsters” appeared, giving place to the consolidation of his plastic vocabulary. He also worked several other artistic techniques, like watercolour, pastel, engraving, lithographs and painting on copper. In the end of the 60’s, he started to concentrate his work on pieces with a more monumental and public character.

Miró was characterised by the corporal language and freshness with which he painted his canvas, as well as by the attention he paid to material and by informalism. He focused his interest on the symbols, not giving much importance to the representation of the themes, but to the way how symbols emerged as a part of the artwork he was working on. The Joan Miró Contemporary Art Centre Foundation was opened in 1975.

www.fundaciomiro-bcn.org