Joan Miró
(1893-1983) Spanish

Miró was a world-renowned Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist. He combined abstract art with surrealist fantasy. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. He worked extensively in lithography and produced numerous murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces.

Miro’s sudden transition from descriptive realism to surrealism took place shortly after the birth of the surrealist movement in Paris in 1924. The artist was captivated by the pictorial possibilities that surrealism offered with its insistence on the subconscious in the world of dreams. He began to produce highly experimental canvases, populating his paintings with imaginary ideograms on the subconscious in the world of dreams. Producing several highly experimental canvases, he populated his works with imaginary ideograms.