Joan Miro

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Joan Miro

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Table of contents

Basic Data
Art For Sale
Biography
Exhibitions
Awards
Films
Literature
Own Writings
Collections
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Basic Data

The Spanish-Catalan painter, graphic artist, sculptor and ceramist Joan Miro is today one of the central figures of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century. He is considered one of the most influential representatives of classical Modernism and Surrealism.

Born: 20 April 1893
Place of birth: Barcelona, Spain
Died on: 25 December 1983
Nationality: Spanish
Similar artists: Salvador Dali, Antoni Tapies, Pablo Picasso, Tony Cragg, Georgia O’Keeffe
Era: Modern art
Stylistic direction: Surrealism, Cubism, Dada

Characteristic of Miro's work is his playful abstract imagery of intense color, linear drawings, and boldly outlined surreal signs and symbols intended to unleash people's subconscious creative potential.

Joan Miro Art For Sale

Joan Miro Maravillas 10 Lithograph Print

Price: $483

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Joan Miro Maravillas 6 Lithograph Print

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Joan Miro Lithograph Print Maravillas 8

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Joan Miro Print Lithograph Maravillas 15

Price: $581

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Joan Miro Print Maravillas 19 Lithograph

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Joan Miro Maravillas 7 Lithograph Print

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Joan Miro La Melodie Acide Lithograph Print

Price: $680

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Joan Miro Lithograph Print Maravillas 9

Price: $581

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Joan Miro Lithograph Print Maravillas 20

Price: $483

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Joan Miro Print Lithograph Maravillas 18

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Joan Miro Print Lithograph Maravillas 16

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Biography

Childhood & youth

Joan Miró i Ferrà was born on April 20, 1893 in Barcelona, Spain. He grew up in a family that cultivated traditional craftsmanship: His father was a watchmaker and goldsmith, his mother came from a family of carpenters and joiners. This connection to the material world, to craftsmanship and form, had a profound influence on Miró's artistic development. He showed an early interest in drawing, and although his parents encouraged him to complete a commercial apprenticeship, his passion for art remained unbroken.

In 1912, Miró decided to follow his artistic vocation and began studying at Francesc Galí's art school in Barcelona. There he learned the basics of modern art and developed his first works, which were strongly inspired by the Catalan landscape and traditional Spanish life. His early work shows a strong influence of Fauvism and the Cubist movement, but also a deep connection to Catalan culture and his rural roots.

Early works and the Parisian avant-garde

In 1919, Miró traveled to Paris for the first time, a decisive step in his artistic development. In the French capital, he met the leading figures of the European avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, whose works made a strong impression on him. Paris became his second home over the next few years, and from then on he regularly spent time between Paris and Barcelona.

In the early 1920s, Miró's painting developed from a strongly nature-influenced, detailed pictorial language to a more abstract, almost childlike formal language. This new direction he was taking can be seen in works such as The Farm (1921-1922), a painting that reveals both his close connection to the Catalan landscape and his growing abstraction and playful formal language. The work shows detailed depictions of life in the countryside, combined with a surreal perspective and a clear, geometric structure.

In Paris, Miró joined the Surrealist movement and further developed his unique visual language, which is characterized by organic forms, playful symbols and a strong imagination. Miró was strongly influenced by surrealist ideas, particularly by André Breton and his concept of “automation”. The idea of integrating the subconscious into art fascinated Miró, and he began to work with spontaneous, intuitive forms based on a deep, inner world.

Surrealism and the iconic visual language

In the 1930s, Miró became one of the leading figures of Surrealism. His works are characterized by a unique mixture of playful, childlike forms and a symbolic, often mystical meaning. Organic forms, animals, stars, eyes and geometric figures dominate his paintings. He strives to destroy traditional painting and create a new, original form of art that embodies freedom and the unconscious.

Famous works from this period, such as Harlequin's Carnival (1924-1925), show his extraordinary ability to create dreamlike, almost hallucinatory worlds that are simultaneously abstract and full of meaning. In these paintings, Miró combines geometric shapes and lines with bright colors, creating a flowing, rhythmic composition that conveys a sense of lightness and playfulness. His works repeatedly reflect his Catalan roots, which are expressed in the symbols and forms of Spanish folk art.

Another central work from this phase is The Birth of the World (1925), in which Miró uses flowing colors and organic forms to create a new, cosmic world. This reveals his vision of art as an act of creation that leads the viewer into another, deeper reality.

The Spanish Civil War and political conflicts

The Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism in Europe had a profound influence on Miró's work. During this time, his art became increasingly political. Works such as Still Life with an Old Shoe (1937) reflect the dark and violent circumstances of the time. The intense colors and the threatening, almost apocalyptic forms express the violence and chaos of war.

During the Second World War, Miró lived in France and only returned to his home country after the end of the war. During this time, he returned to painting and sculpture. Despite the political unrest in Europe, his art remains characterized by a deep attachment to freedom and incomparable creativity.

Later works: material experiments and public art

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Miró began to experiment with different materials and techniques. He expanded his work beyond painting and devoted himself to sculpture, ceramics and printmaking. His monumental ceramic walls and sculptures created in the 1950s and 1960s in particular demonstrate his interest in bringing art into public spaces and making it accessible to a wide audience.

In collaboration with the ceramist Josep Llorens Artigas, Miró created large-format wall ceramics such as the famous wall ceramics for UNESCO in Paris (1958), which transferred his bold, organic forms and bright colors into a new dimension. His sculptures, which often combine abstract forms and rough materials such as stone and bronze, also demonstrate his enduring fascination with the physical and material in art.

During this period, he created works such as Woman and Bird (1982), a monumental sculpture that now stands in a park in Barcelona. The mixture of abstraction and simplicity and the use of organic forms, often depicting animals or people, remains characteristic of his entire oeuvre.

Late years and legacy

In the 1960s and 1970s, Miró reached a new peak in his career. His works are exhibited worldwide and he receives numerous honors and awards. He remained artistically active into old age and continued to develop his ideas. A central theme in his later works is the desire for radical simplicity, as can be seen in his series of large-format, minimalist paintings, which often contain only a few colors and lines.

In 1975, the Fundació Joan Miró was opened in Barcelona, a museum dedicated to his works and preserving his legacy. Today, this museum is one of the most important centers for the study of Miró's art and offers a comprehensive overview of his career and his influence on modern art.

Joan Miró died in Palma de Mallorca on December 25, 1983 at the age of 90. His artistic legacy remains of great importance to this day. Miró is celebrated as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, whose work radically redefined the boundaries between abstraction, surrealism and modern art. His unmistakable visual language, characterized by symbols, colors and a playful imagination, has inspired and influenced generations of artists.

Exhibitions

14.10.2021 - 06.03.2022 La Déconniatrie Art, Exil Et Psychiatrie Autour De François Tosquelles – Les Abattoirs – FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse.
24.09.2021 - 30.01.2021 Sammlung Miessl – Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt.
18.09.2021 - 01.07.2024 Delinking and Relinking – Stedlijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
14.08.2021 - 30.09.2021 Extranjeros, en los Acervos del Museo – Museo de Arte del Tolimam Ibague.
06.10.2020 - 27.11.2020 Dreamsongs: From Medicine To Demons To Artificial Intelligence - Colnaghi London.
27.06.2020 - 22.08.2020 ACCROCHAGE - Galerie Boisserée, Cologne.
01.06.2020 - 03.01.2021 EXTRA LARGE. - Kunsthal Rotterdam.
28.03.2020 - 07.02.2021 Rojo - Colección Mssa - Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile.
28.03.2020 - 30.08.2020 extra large - Tapestries from Picasso and Le Corbusier to Louise Bourgeois – Kunsthal Rotterdam.
08.02.2020 - 17.05.2020 bauhaus.film.expanded - ZKM | Karlsruhe.
08.01.2020 - 01.11.2020 Colección - De la posguerra a la contemporaneidad, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern, Palma de Mallorca.
12.12.2019 - 01.03.2020 Christian Zervos & Cahiers d’Art: The Archaic Turn - Benaki Museum, Athens.
06.11.2019 - 11.01.2020 ACCROCHAGE - Galerie Boisserée, Cologne.
06.10.2019 - 06.02.2020 Masterworks - Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York City.
24.08.2019 - 24.11.2019 Joan Miró - Skulpturen 1970-82 - Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal.
12.12.2018 - 03.03.2019 Joan Miró and the Death of Painting - Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto.
15.07.2018 - 16.09.2018 Joan Miró – Poetische Welten - Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde.
23.02.2018 - 27.04.2018 Spanish Still Life - BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels.
15.10.2017 - 21.01.2018 Resident Alien. The Marin Karmitz Collection - La Maison Rouge, Paris.
03.09.2017 - 28.01.2018 MIRÓ – Welt der Monster - Max Ernst Museum Brühl.
15.10.2016 - 22.01.2017 From Rodin to Bourgeois: Sculpture in the 20th century - Gemeentemuseum Den Haag & GEM-Museum for Contemporary Art.
14.10.2016 - 15.01.2017 Listening with the Eyes: Sound Art in Spain (1961–2016) - Fundacion Juan March, Madrid.
07.10.2016 - 22.01.2017 Dalí, Ernst, Miró, Magritte ... - Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
12.09.2014 - 11.01.2015 Miro. Von der Erde zum Himmel - Albertina, Vienna.
03.11.2013 - 02.03.2014 The Surrealists: Works from the Collection - Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
30.10.2013 - 03.03.2014 Surrealism and the object - Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Awards

1980: Gold Medal of the Fine Arts of the Spanish State, Madrid.
1979: Honorary doctorate from the University of Barcelona.
1978: International Antonio-Feltrinelli-Prize, Rome.
1978: Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona.
1968: Honorary doctorate from Harvard University, Cambridge.
1961: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge.
1960: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NewYork.
1958: Guggenheim International Award, New York.
1957: Promotion to Satrap des Collège de ’Pataphysique in Paris
1954: Grand Prize for Graphics at the Venice Biennale.
1952: Appointment as a member of the Collège de ’Pataphysique in Paris

Films

Miró: Theatre Of Dreams, Documentation by Robin Lough, 60min, Spain 1978.
Miró parle, Documentation by Clovis Prévost & Carles Santos, 26min, Spain 1974.
Miró Sculpteur, Documentation by Clovis Prévost, 38 min, France 1973.
Lithographie d’une, Documentation by Clovis Prévost & Carles Santos, 18min, France 1971.

Literature

Joan Miro - poestische Welten, exhibition catalog, Galerie Boisserée (Publ.), Cologne 2018.
Joan Miró, las obras de su vida, Daniel R. Caruncho, Barcelona 2017.
Miró - Welt der Monster: Werke der Fondation Maeght, exhibition catalog, Achim Sommer (Publ.), Cologne 2017.
Joan Miró: 1893-1983, Janis Mink, Cologne 2016.
Joan Miró - Mauer, Fries, Wandbild, exhibition catalog, Esther Braun-Kalberer (Publ.), Munich 2015.
Miró: Malerei als Poesie, exhibition catalog, Bucerius-Kunst-Forum & Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Publ.), Munich 2015.
Miró: von der Erde zum Himmel, exhibition catalog, Gisela Fischer & Jean-Louis Prat (Publ.), Munich, London, New York 2014.