Biography

The Spanish artist Joan Miró was born on 20.4.1893 in Barcelona. His father Miquel is a goldsmith and watchmaker. He spends his childhood in Barcelona as well as on vacation in Tarragona and Montroig, the home of his father, and on Mallorca. From 1907 Joan Miró attends the commercial school in Barcelona as well as the art academy La Lonja. From 1912 Joan Miró attends the avant-garde Escola d‘Art de Francisco Galí in Barcelona. His own paintings at this time are oriented on Fauvism. In 1917 Miró meets Francis Picabia. 1918 takes place in the gallery Dalmau the first first solo exhibition. In 1919 Miró travels to Paris for the first time, where his friendship with Pablo Picasso began. In 1921 he rents his own studio in Paris. Also in 1921, the gallery La Licorne shows his paintings, but the exhibition was not a success. In 1921/22 he creates the painting „Farm“ - a programmatic work that illustrates the transition from a realistic way of seeing to pictorial visions of dreams. In 1923 Joan Miró meets Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller as well as André Breton. Through Breton Joan Miró comes into contact with the Surrealists. He joins them and in 1925 exhibits his works together with Jean Arp, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Man Ray, André Masson, Pablo Picasso and others in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre. His paintings become more and more emblematic and abstracted. In the years 1929/30, Joan Miró went through a violent artistic crisis artistic crisis, which leads him to a kind of anti-painting. Around first „Papiers Collés“ and collages, which he exhibited in 1930 at the 1930 in the gallery Goemans in Brussels, as well as first lithographs, later lithographs, and later etchings. His pictures are less divided into small parts, but instead show large, overlapping areas of color, in which sparsely placed signs just barely association with the title. His strength as a colorist becomes more and more apparent, the pictorial space becomes two-dimensional. From 1940 Joan Miró lived in Palma de Mallora, Montroig and Barcelona. In 1954 he received the Grand International Graphic Prize at the Venice Biennale. Graphics and ceramics dominate his work for the next four years. In 1956 the artist moves to Palma de Mallorca, where the architect Sert builds the studio house „Son Abriñes“. Joan Miró receives numerous commissions for wall ceramics, which he carries out with the artist friend Artigas. In 1958 the wall ceramics for the UNESCO in Paris are completed. In 1970, the huge wall installation for the airport in Barcelona is created. In 1964, the garden „Le Labyrinthe“ of the Fondation Maeght with sculptures and ceramics by Miró is inaugurated in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. As early as 1941, the first retrospective took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, numerous other exhibitions and numerous honors followed. On 25.12.1983 Joan Miró died in Palma de Mallorca.

Museum and single exhibitions (selection)

2024

Joan Miró: Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Our Ghosts Live in the Future, Fundació Joan, Miró, Barcelona, Spain

2023

Joan Miró: Opening the Archive 03. 12 wooden panels and 52 miscellaneous pieces, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Joan Miró: and the Script of Things, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Joan Miró: Opening the Archive 02. Il était une petite pie, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Chagall, Matisse, Miró, Museum Folkwang

2022

Miró. His Most Intimate Legacy, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

2021

Joan Miró: Signos E Figurações, Museu Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal

Joan Miró. La Gran Belleza, Newlands House Gallery, Petworth, West Sussex, United Kingdom

2019

Joan Miró - Birth of the World, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)New York City, NY, United States

2018

Joan Miró - Poetische Welten, Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde, Apolda, Germany

Joan Miró, Order and disorder, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain

2017

Miró: The Experience of Looking, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

Miro: World of Monsters, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Germany

Joan Miró Anti-Portrait Gallery, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Joan Miró - From The Collection Of The Kreeger Museum, Kreeger Museum, Washington, DC, United States

2016

Joan Miró: Materiality And Metamorphosis, Museu Serralves - Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal

Miró: Shape And Color, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS, United States

Miró y el objeto, Caixa Forum Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2015

Miró and the Object, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Joan Miró - Wand, Fries, Mural, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

Miró in the Rijksmuseum gardens, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Miró – Malerei als Poesie, K20, Dusseldorf, Germany

Joan Miró - Obras Sobre Papel 1960-1978, Centre Pompidou Malaga, Málaga, Spain

2014

Joan Miró – Masterpeices From The Maeght Foundation, Umjetnicki paviljon / Art Pavilion Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Joan Miró - From Earth to Sky, Albertina, Vienna, Austria

2013

Joan Miró: Women, Birds, Stars, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Joan Miró. Obra gráfica, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Miró - Poésie Et Lumière, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland

2012

Miró! Poesia e luce, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy

Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

2011

Joan Miró. L'escala de l'evasió, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Miró, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom

2010

Miró: The Dutch Interiors, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States

Miro. Die Farbe der Poesie, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany

Joan Miró – I Work Like A Gardener, Henie Onstad Art Centre, Høvikodden, Norway

Miró - I Work Like a Gardener, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, Denmark

2009

Miró en son jardin, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France

Miró - Dupin. Arte y poesía, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

2008

Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States

Miro: la métaphore de l'objet, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne, Carcassonne, France

Miró - la tierra, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

2006

Joan Miro - parade of obsession, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, South Korea

Joan Miró - Fantastische Welten, Kunsthalle in Emden, Emden, Germany

Miró - Camins inexplorats, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

2004

Joan Miró, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

Joan Miró, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Joan Miró 1917-1934, La naissance du monde, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2002

Joan Miro - 1918 – 1945, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Joan Miró - Schnecke Frau Blume Stern, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf, Germany

Homage to Gaudí, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

2001

Joan Miró : Métamorphoses des formes, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France

1999

Joan Miró - Werke aus Mallorca, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany

Miró, la collection du Centre Pompidou, CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, France

1998

Joan Miró - a creator of new worlds, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Joan Miro, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden

1997

Joan Miró. Campesino catalán con guitarra, 1924, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Joan Miró. Equilibri a l'espai, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

1996

Joan Miró - Zeichnungen und Skulpturen 1945 – 1983, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Joan Miró: Printmaker, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

1995

Miro – Spirit of the Orient, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

1994

Joan Miro - Les 3 bleus, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

1993

Joan Miró – Skulpturen, Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna, Austria

Joan Miró, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States

Joan Miró - campo de estrellas, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

1992

Miro - Personnages Oiseaux..., Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

1990

Joan Miró, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany

Joan Miró : rétrospective de l'oeuvre peint, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France

1989

Joan Miró: Arbeiten auf Papier, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

Joan Miró, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1988

Miró: Gemälde, Plastiken, Zeichnungen und GraphikSchirn KunsthalleFrankfurt/MainGermany

Joan Mirò – Viaggio delle figureCastello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte ContemporaneaTurinItaly

1987

Miró escultor, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Joan Miró, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany

1986

Joan Miro, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

1985

Joan Miro and the Book, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States

1984

Miro - Les 3 Bleu, 1961, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Hommage à Miró, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France

1983

Joan Miró: 1893-1983, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States

Miró: A 90th Birthday Tribute, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States

1981

Joan Miro, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL, United States