Grau Juan Miro' Biography
Joan Miró Ferrà was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1893. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Llonja from 1907 to 1910, attending a business school at the same time. Between 1912 and 1915 he attended the art school of the painter Francesco Gali, then the Drawing Academy of the Sant-Lluc Club until 1918. In this period, Mirò met the ceramist Antigas, the painter Ricart and discovered cubist painting during an exhibition in Barcelona, starting to paint. His first personal exhibition took place in 1918 (Dalmau Gallery, Barcelona). In 1920 he met Picasso. His art evolved at the beginning of the 1920s towards an imaginary style that culminated in surrealism. In 1924 he joined the surrealist group and, twenty years later, participated in the international exhibition of Surrealism (Paris, 1947). From 1925 to 1927, his paintings become dreamlike and bare. In 1926 he collaborated with Marx Ernst on the decorations of "Romeo and Juliet" for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. At the end of the 1920s he created a series of works inspired by the great masters of the past and at the same time created imaginary portraits. Using different materials (bark, lint, assemblages of objects, etc.), Joan Miro' creates collage paintings which he himself defines as "anti-painting". In 1932, he exhibited in Paris and New York, meeting Kandinsky the following year. In 1937, he created a mural for the Spanish pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. During the war, he continued his search for poetic representation and painted the ensemble "Les Constellations" ("The Constellations"). In 1944, he began making small-format bronze sculptures, and was equally interested in ceramics. Miró's graphic work is just as important as his subsequent artistic syntheses with texts or poems; in this context, for example, in 1947, he illustrated "A toute épreuve" by Paul Eluard and "Antitete" by Tristan Tzara. In the 1960s, his more meditative canvases are often painted on burlap sacks, while in the 1970s he paints on burnt canvases. Miro' will also create monumental works for various clients. The Miro' Foundation in Barcelona was inaugurated in 1976; the artist will donate 5000 drawings. Joan Miro' died in Palma de Majorca in 1983.
