TheworkofJoanMiró(b.1893Barcelona;d.1983,Palma)isadmiredforitsformalinnovationsdeveloped inthecontextofthefirstavant-gardemovements,especiallyDadaismandSurrealism,andheisalso considereda precursorofAbstractExpressionism.Mirówas moreover anartistinterestedinspiritual matters and fascinatedbyvisionsand dreams. More recently,attentionhasalso been drawnto thepolitical aspects of his work, emphasizing his firm opposition toFranco’s dictatorship andhissympathy for the Catalannationalism of the period. Some of his ideas like his proclamationof the “assassinationof painting,” madeatapointinthelate1920swhenMirówas paintingunceasingly, remainintriguing,andpointtoan attitude heralding Conceptual Art. Forty years after his death, in short, his oeuvre still interests and fascinatesuswhileremainingjustasenigmaticasever.

Miró’soeuvre is an exemplarymythopoetic project, aconstant transformationof lived experience into art. As firmly as he ignoredtraditionalrealism, Miró also rejectedtheideaofpure abstraction,asserting that all themarkshepaintedonhisworkscorrespondedtosomethingconcreteandanchoredinaprofoundreality thatispartofrealityitself.ThisidearelatestoaphrasebypoetAndréBreton,theleaderoftheSurrealist movement,whospokeofanewabsoluterealityinwhichtheinnerworldofartistsandpoetswas incorporatedtotheoutsideworld.In themeantime,PaulKlee,an artistadmiredbyMiró,calledhis own workabstractbutwithmemories,meaningthatinart,therealistherealtransformedbymemory.In statementsmade toCahiersd’Artin 1939,Miró affirmed:“If we don’ttry todiscover thereligious essence orthemagicalsenseofthings,weshalldonomorethanaddnewcausesofdegradationtothosealready surrounding people today.”

TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

MiróspenthisformativeyearsinBarcelonaata timewhen nationalistsentimentswereblooming.The Catalancapital was then a conservative city, but various outstanding personalities emerged there in the late 1910swithacommitmenttothenewideasarrivingfromParis,amongthemthecomposerFrederic Mompou,thepoetJ.V.Foix,andMiróhimself.DuringWorldWarI,severalsignificantavant-gardeartists alsotookrefugeinBarcelona,suchasFrancisPicabia,RobertandSoniaDelaunay,andMarcelDuchamp, all of whom Miró met.

Atthatstage,theCatalanpainteralreadylongedtotraveltotheFrenchcapital,andheandhisfriends would discussthe news thatarrivedfromit. He imagined that he would find great creative freedomin Paris andwouldfrequentthecompanyofthemostadvancedartists,poets,andartdealersofhistime,as was indeed to occur.

1918–1920

In1918–1920,Miró painted what have beencalledhis “detailist”works,characterized bygreat concentrationand delicacyof execution. Inthem, the leavesof treesand plants looklikeminutely exact calligraphies,reminiscentoforientalartisticpractices.Theruralworldintheseearlyworksbecomesan Arcadiansetting. Rather than representing reality precisely, Mirópaints the emotionsthe landscapes arouseinhim.Thedesireforobjectivityistransformedintoavisionarygaze.

AlsofromthisfirstperiodisSelf-portrait(1919),whichstillmanifestsadesireforobjectivityrelatedto visiblereality.Itisalongwayfromtwolaterself-portraits,Self-portraitI(1937–38)andSelf-portraitII (1938).Inthe first,Miróturns himself intoatransparent figure andhiseyes and the buttonholesof his shirt adoptastralorcosmicforms,whilehisfaceistheemblemofhisinnerworld.Inthesecondself-portraitof 1938,Mirótransformshimselfliterallyintothenight,for thisisa purevision ofhimselfatamomentof rapture.Inthiswork,tworedcirclessurroundedbytonguesofyellowflamefloatinablackspacewithno limits orhorizon,whileallaroundarestars,fishes,birds,butterflies,andbiomorphicabstractshapes.The whole thing suggests ecstasy.

For MargitRowell,“Miró’s spirituallife,hisinnerlandscape,was as realto him as thesun,an insect,ora bladeofgrass.(…)Hismythopoeticconscienceseldomsawrealitywithoutafilter:thefilterthat transformed any truth into an Absolute Truth.”

Early1920s

Mirówrote tohis friendJ.F.Ràfols in1923 on thesubjectof thenew landscapes he was then painting: “I havemanageddefinitivelytobreakawayandfreemyselffromnature,andthelandscapesnolongerhave anything to do with external reality,”thegoalbeing“greateremotionalpower.”Interior (The Farmer’s Wife,1922–23), anotherpainting ofthe ruralworld, is alsoa transitionalwork. Topaint the farmer’swife of the title, Miró used a doll, whichheightensa finalsensation of strangeness.In thispicture, all the visible elements,including acatandastove,can stillbe clearly identified.However,the woman’s enormousbare feetconfirmthatmererepresentationisnotthepainter’sobjectivehere,andthattheenergywhich transfigurestherealcomesfromtheearth.

Inhis firstParisstudioat45,RueBlomet,whichheoccupiedin1921,Miró paintedthelandscapes which bear noreference to external reality. AndréMassonwasa neighbor ofhis, and among the outstanding artists and poets who passed through Miró’s studio were Antonin Artaud, Raymond Roussel, Robert Desnos,PaulEluard,MichelLeiris,BenjaminPéretandRenéChar. Hewasinterestedintheformal innovationsofallthesefigures,whorejectedlogic,cliché,andtraditionwhileturningtheirattentionto questionslikeautomatism,theaestheticsoffragmentation,thearbitraryunionofunexpectedand unconnected images, and the visual and typographicaluse of poetic texts in calligrams. Miró’s pictures of themid–1920s,knownasthedreampaintings,destroyanylogicalnarrativestructure,andthefewelements thatappearscatteredovertheirsurfaces appeartobetheresultofimprovisation,althoughhissketches prove the opposite.

RueTourlaque

Between1926-1927,Miróchangedstudioandstyle.HemovedtotheRueTourlaque,whereheworked until1929,alternating with summers inCatalonia,andwherehe frequentedthe companyof artists likeJean Arp,RenéMagritte,andMaxErnst,hisnewneighbors.Amonghismostoutstandingworksofthattimeare variouslarge-formathorizontallandscapeslikeLandscape(LandscapewithRooster)andLandscape(The Hare), both of 1927. Here, Miró paints certain recognizable but stylized elements. The intensely colored backgrounds ofthesepictures suggest wide openspaces, while traditional procedureslikeshading, the construction of volume, andperspective all disappear. In1927, Miró also produced aseries ofsmall paintings onwhite backgrounds like Painting(TheSun)and Painting(TheStar). Inthese works, the background is a pure pictorial space where recognizable but stylized forms of stars and animals float like emblems of this new reality.

The 1930s

In the1930s,expressionismbecamea dominant characteristic ofMiró’swork. Thisisthe case of Groupof Personnages in the Forest (1931),theso-calledWild Paintings (1934–38),a series ofpaintingson sandpaper,collages, smallpaintings oncopper likeManandWomaninfrontofaPileofExcrement(1935), anextensiveseriesofpaintingsonmasonitefromthesummerof1936,andanotheroncelotexof1937.In general, all of them are characterized by displaying monstrous figures in ambiguous and disturbing settings, probably a reflection of his worry andanxiety over thepolitical situation thatled to the Spanish CivilWarandWorldWarII.Mirócreatedthe27paintingsonmasonitepanelsofthesamesizeduringthe summerthatbroughtthestartoftheCivilWar.TheseworksanticipatetheActionPaintingoftheNew YorkSchool,wheretheactofpaintingbecomesthesubjectofthework.Hisimagesareanillustrationof theprocessthathasgivenrisetothem.Mirópaintsonahighlytexturedmaterialwithanintenseearthy coloruponwhich he rapidly superimposesblack strokes and fieldsof color, employing other richly textured materialslike tar, gravel, or sand.Sometimeshe scrapes orpiercesthe surface. In spite of their spontaneity, certainformsintheseworksarerecognizableorsuggestiveofspecificthings,suchaseyes,heads,and phalluses.