Joan Miró

(1893-1983)

Spain – Art of the Interwar Period – Cubism, Surrealism – Joan Miro

Vita:

Joan Miro started taking drawing lessons at the age of 7. After successfully completing his school education, he studied at the commercial school and the art academy in Barcelona. For the sake of his parents, he worked as an accountant for a few years, until he decided to devote himself entirely to art. In 1915 he started his career as a painter and was soon the proud owner of his first own studio. His first own exhibition took place just three years later. After his first successes, he went on a number of study trips, including to Paris, where he was strongly influenced in his art. At first Miro mainly painted still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Paris was the center of new styles and it was there that its style changed and became more and more abstract. In the following years he got to know more and more artist colleagues, including Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and Andre Masson. During his artistic career he also received a large number of honors. As a sign of great appreciation, the city of Barcelona commissioned an architect to build the Miro Museum in 1968.

Work:

Joan Miro’s extensive oeuvre consists of around 2000 oil paintings, 500 sculptures, 400 ceramics as well as 5000 collages and countless drawings. The graphic oeuvre consists of around 3500 works. His early work was characterized by the style of Fauvism. He mostly painted still lifes, some of which were influenced by artists such as Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse. The transition to Surrealism and Cubism followed suddenly in 1924. His strong colors and simplified forms are significant for Miro’s painting style. He developed his own style around 1930 and it is precisely this that helped him to fame and recognition. Numbers appeared more and more often in his works, for example the number 48. Over time, his pictures became less detailed and consisted more and more of large areas that partly overlapped and the pictorial space became more planar. In the 1930s he began to dedicate himself more and more to other materials, such as sculptures, ceramics, graphics and wall paintings. In 1940 Miro concentrated on the basic colors black, yellow, blue, red and green. He continued his own style of painting consistently and in 1947 he was happy about his first major exhibition in the USA, which helped him achieve his final breakthrough.