ART-PRESENTATION: Joan Miró

Joan Miró was a seminal figure in 20th Century Avant-Garde painting. The Spanish artist’s innovative use of line, organic shapes, and color represents a major contribution to Surrealism. Born in the sea port city of Barcelona, much of his work was influenced by the scenic seaside town, and the distinct style that he found in the area.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Grand Palais Archive

Designed specifically for the Grand Palais spaces the Retrospective on Joan Miró brings together nearly 150 key works. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics and illustrated books for Museum and private Collections are displayed together to illuminate a career defined by continuous renewal. The exhibition begins with the Fauvist, Cubist and Detailist periods, followed by a Surrealist period where Miró invented a poetic world that was previously unseen. These fruitful periods demonstrate the artist’s investigations and research, as well as his colour palette, which fuelled a vocabulary of new and unusual forms. The final rooms are dedicated to the last 25 years of his work. In his large Palma de Mallorca studio Miró painted larger formats that gave a new dimension to his technique, which remained just as meticulously precise. Joan Miró was born in Spain in 20/4/1893 to a family of craftsmen. His father, Miguel, was a watchmaker and goldsmith, while his grandfathers were cabinetmakers and blacksmiths. Miró exhibited a strong love of drawing at an early age; according to biographers. He attended the School of Commerce from 1907-10. His relatively brief foray into the business world, characterized by constant study, instilled a strong sense of order and a robust work ethic in Miró but at a very high cost. Following what has been characterized as a nervous breakdown, Miró abandoned his business career and subsequently devoted himself fully to making art. In 1912, Miró enrolled in an art academy in Barcelona. The school taught Miró about Modern Art Movements in Western Europe and introduced him to contemporary Catalan poets. Miró was also encouraged to go out into the countryside in the midst of the landscapes he wished to paint and to study the artistic practices of his contemporaries. Between 1912 and 1920, Miró painted still-lifes, nudes, and landscapes. His style during this period in his early career has been referred to as “poetic realism”. It was during this phase of his career that Miró developed an interest in the bold, bright colors of the French Fauve painters and the fractured compositions of the Cubists. In 1919 Miró made his first trip to Paris, France, and thereafter he spent the winters in Paris and the summers in Montroig. His first solo exhibition in Paris was held in 1921 and his paintings of this period reflect Cubist influences.  While he was in Paris, Joan Miro was introduced to Surrealism. Although Miro never joined the Surrealist circle, he collaborated with Max Ernst, one of leading Surealist. In 1928, he exhibited with a group of surrealist painters, including Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte in Paris; even though Surrealism has many influences in his work, Miro retained his own personal style, and distinct form in most of the works that he distributed and exhibited. For several years to follow, Joan Miro was known to work in various art forms, created various mediums, and used all types of work methods, to create new pieces. For the next thirty years of his career, much of his work was done to showcase his distinct style of art, and the manner in which he could create, regardless of which mediums he was working with. During this time much of his work was also placed in a number of individual, as well as group exhibitions, which brought notoriety to his work, and to the Catalan style which he would create most of his pieces around. The final period of the work which Joan Miro is most noted for, came from the end of the 1960s, which would last up until his death, marking the end of his art career. During these final years, he took more of a central focus on doing public works of art. This came in the form of monumental pieces, and public displays, which were specifically created for the enjoyment by the public, and were to be displayed in a number of distinct locations. During the final years of his career, much of the work which Joan Miro created, took more of an interest on symbolism, and the message that was being portrayed, as opposed to the actual image, and the exacting features which were created in these works. He would take less focus on the theme of the figure that was being depicted, and focused more on the symbol and the message that emerged from the final piece that was depicted to the general public. The eccentric style in which Joan Miro created, is an embodiment of the unique approach he took not only to the work he created, but to the art world in general, and the many unique forms of art which he created during the course of his illustrious career.

Info: Curator: Jean-Louis Prat, Grand Palais, 3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower, Paris, Duration: 3/10/18-4/2/19, Mon & Thu-Sun 10:00-20:00, Wed 10:00-22:00, www.grandpalais.fr