Joan Miró Spanish Master

Joan Miró

(1893-1983). Spanish Master printer - born at Barcelona. At his first exhibition. in the Dalmau Gal, in 1918 he showed pictures which combined suggestions of Catalan folklore with a FAUVIST technique. In 1919, he visited Paris, became a friend of PICASSO and was for a while influenced by CUBISM. Joan Miró combined it with a sophisticated Primitivism On a second visit to Paris in 1920 he made contact with avant-garde writers and with the Paris DADAISTS until the split which occurred he went along with the SURREALISTS. Miró signed their manifesto in 1924 and joined the movement in 1925. Throughout his life. whether his work was purely abstract art or whether it retained figurative suggestions. Miró remained true to the basic Surrealistic principle of releasing the creative forces of the unconscious mind from control by logic and reason. rejecting traditional devices of pictorial representation and composition. and fusing the spontaneous expressions of a logical fantasy with the reality of experience into a higher reality of pictorial creation. However, in his mature work he used none of the superficial devices beloved by the Surrealists and he stood apart from the several stylistic categories of Surrealism: yet he was the greatest of all Surrealist abstract artists and can be compared in stature only to KANDINSKY among the forerunners of expressive abstraction. His late period was inaugurated by the series of Constellations luminous gouaches with small forms scattered In a magical space creating a dreamlike image of the earth and the cosmos. From 1944 he turned to ceramics in collaboration with the potter Llorens Artigas and also took up terracotta. which absorbed the major part of his energies in the 1950s. He visited the USA in 1947 and did a mural at Cincinnati. followed by a large mural for Harvard University in 1950. From then until 1958 he worked on two immense ceramic wall decorations. Mur du Soleil and Mur de in Lune for the UNESCO building. Paris During this time he was also very actively engaged on lithographs and etchings and in 1954 received the Grand Prix for graphic art at the Venice Biennale. Although it had its source in the attitudes encouraged by the Surrealist movement. Miró`s work was of a stature which precluded its being brought within the classification of Surrealism It contains elements of Primitivism. His fame was world-wide. The Foundation Joan Miró was opened in 1975 on the heights of Montjuic overlooking Barcelona Built by Jose Luis Sert. it is designed both as a memorial museum housing the collection of Miró`s works and as a centre of artistic activity In 1978 a comprehensive retrospective exhibition was staged at the Mus de Arte Contemporaneo. Madrid.