Joan Miró. La forza della materia

Joan Miró. La forza della materia highlights the will of Miró of  reaching the purity of art by  exploring beyond conventional painting. The show illustrate the constant experimentation with techniques ,  media and  different procedures that led him  to the development of a  new culture of matter. Under the direction of Rosa Maria Malet, the  Fundació Joan Miró in  Barcelona organizes this exhibition, which has sixty - six works  from  its collection. The show  includes paintings, drawings , sculptures  and  graphic works made between 1931 and 1981 . The exhibition will be open from March 25 to September 11, 2016 at  the MUDEC, Museo delle Culture, Milano, Italy.

"Matter ,  the instrument gives me the technique , a means to  give life to one thing [ ...]  In my painting ,  a small line with a thick shape at the end is a surprise . I'm as  surprised [... ]  More than the picture itself , what counts  is what brings out  into the air ,  what  diffuses . " With these words , collecte d by  Yvon Taillandier in an interview in 1959 at Xxe Siècle , Joan  Miró reflects on the importance of experimentation with matter in his  work and on the freedom and its creation effects in various media .

Joan Miró. La forza della materia includes a broad  representation of this  experimentation with matter, through 114 works of their funds and private collections,  presented in four rooms. In the first one, paintings and drawings from 1931 and 1944  are exhibited, most of which produced under the influence of  the Spanish Civil War and  World War II. Thus, these works synthesize the tragedy of this period and show the new  symbolic language that Miró configured.

The move of Joan Miró in 1956 to Palma de Mallorca, where his friend, the  architect Josep Lluís Sert, had designed a studio , is the starting point of the exhibits in  the second room .  The paintings of this space show how Miró, with the desire to reach an increasingly anonymous artistic expression ,  releases his gesture. At maturity of his  career, a  continuin g interest in matter and its possibilities lead him to work with profusion bronze sculpture ,  also represented in this room. Miró uses the lost - wax process to give life to new beings by the assembly of objects, mainly from natural and popular environment.

The third room presents a series of works of the seventies in which Miró continued questioning the ultimate meaning of the painting without ever leaving it. W ith  the intention of removing all illusory elements of his painting , he underwent it to the  most unorthodox practices  - for example,  burning the canvases - while uses or reuses the  most unusual medias, wood , sandpaper, paintings  pompier  style , etc.  Destroying and creating both , the artist  provokes the viewer and questions the economic value of the  artwork .

The last section of the exhibition focuses on the sculptural and graphic works of Miró , modalities  with immense technical possibilities enhanced by collaborative work with artisans .  In this room are remarkable his works with carborundum  - an  artificial abrasive made from  powder of carbon and silicon - ,  that allows him to  enrich the matter  and enhance the line of the engravings .  In each of these disciplines , Joan  Miró challenges the technique  seeking the freedom of expression that he  achieved with  painting.

Joan Miró. La forza della materia is organized by the Fundació Joan Miró in  Milano, Italy at the MUDEC, Museo delle Culture, a cent er dedicated to the  interdisciplinary research on the world cultures. Taking inspirations from the civic  ethnographic collections and in partnership with our communities, MUDEC intend to  create a place where to dialogue on contemporary themes by the medium o f visual,  performing and sound art, design and costume.





Joan Miró Personnages et oiseau Figures and bird 1937 Indian ink and watercolour on paper 25 x 32 cm Private collection






Joan Miró Personnages, oiseau, étoiles Figures, bird, stars 1942 Pencil, watercolour, gouache, Indian ink  and pastel  on paper 66 x 51 cm Private collectio






Joan Miró Femme au clair de lune Woman by moonlight 1970 Gouache, Indian ink and wax  crayon on paper 99 x 61 cm  Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona







Joan Miró Poème Poem 1974 Oil on canvas 130 x 97 cm Private collection







Joan Miró Les Deux Amis Two friends 1969 Etching, aquatint and carborundum 71,5 x 106,5 cm Fundació








Joan Miró Pantagruel 1978 Etching, aquatint, carborundum and  grattage 10 6,8 x 74,7 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona






Joan Miró Mambo 1978 Etching and aquatint 114,3 x 73,9 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona