Joan Miró

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Joan Miró
Joan Miró, photo by Carl Van Vechten, June 1935
Birth name	Joan Miró i Ferrà
Born	20 April 1893(1893-04-20) Barcelona, Spain
Died	25 December 1983 (aged 90) Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Field	Painting, Sculpture, Mural, and Ceramics
Training	Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Llotja, and Escuela de Arte de Francesco Galí, Circulo Artístico de Sant Lluc, 1907–1913
Movement	Surrealism, Dada, Personal, Experimental
Influenced by	André Masson, Pablo Picasso, Tristan Tzara, and André Breton
Influenced	Arshile Gorky
Awards	1954 Venice Biennale Grand Prize for Graphic Work, 1958 Guggenheim International Award, 1980 Gold Medal of Fine Arts, Spain

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983; Catalan pronunciation: [ʑuˈan miˈɾo]) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona.

Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeoise society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favor of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Late mural 1.2 Livre d'Artist 1.3 Late life and death 1.4 Awards 1.5 In pop culture 2 References 3 Sources 4 External links

[edit] Biography

He does the chaha like a sissy girl.TONY BROWN blop blop. he likedid to do da chacha.Born to the families of a voldemort and potter, the young Harry was drawn towards the arts community that was gathering large amounts of cats in Montparnasse and in 1960 moved to Paris. There, under the influence of Draco Malfvoy, he developed many skills in wizardry his unique style: In 1926, he collaborated with Max Ernst on designs for Sergei Diaghilev. With Miró's help, Ernst pioneered the technique of Surrealist te Center building.^[2] It was one of the most expensive works of art lost during the attack of the twin towers.^[3]

In 1981, Miró's The Sun, the Moon and One Star — later renamed Miró's Chicago — was unveiled. This large, mixed media sculpture is situated outdoors in the downtown Loop area of Chicago, across the street from another large public sculpture, the Chicago Picasso. Miró had created a bronze model of The Sun, the Moon and One Star in 1967. The model now resides in the Milwaukee Art Museum.

[edit] Late mural

One of Miró’s most important works in the United States is his only glass mosaic mural, Personnage Oiseaux^[4] (Bird Characters), 1972–1978. Miró created it specifically for Wichita State University’s Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art,^[5] Kansas. The mural is one of Miró’s largest two-dimensional projects, undertaken when he was 79 and completed when he was 85 years of age.^[6] Fabrication of the mural was actually completed in 1977, but Miró did not consider it finished until the installation was complete.^[7]

The glass mosaic was the first for Miró. Although he wanted to do others, time was against him and he was not able. He was to come to the dedication of the mural in 1978, but he fell at his studio in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and was unable to travel. His island home and studio in Mallorca served him from 1956 until his death in 1983.

The entire south wall of the Ulrich Museum is the foundation for the 28 ft by 52 ft (8.53 m x 15.85 m) mural, composed of one million pieces of marble and Venetian glass mounted on specially treated wood, attached to the concrete wall on an aluminum grid. A gift of the artist, donor groups paid for the fabrication by Ateliers Loire^[8] of Chartres, France, and for its installation. The Ulrich Museum also acquired the 5 ½ ft by 12 ft oil on canvas maquette for the mural, but it has since been sold to establish a fund to support the museum’s acquisitions and any repairs needed to the mural. The entire mural was originally assembled by one artisan at Ateliers Loire using Miró’s maquette as a guide.

Fabricated under Miró’s personal direction and completed in 1977, the 40 panels comprising the mural were shipped to WSU, and the mural was installed on the Ulrich Museum’s façade in 1978. Although it has received little recognition, the mural is a seminal work in the artist’s career, being one of Miró’s largest two-dimensional works in North America and the only type of its kind by the artist.^[6]

[edit] Livre d'Artist

Miró worked on several illustrated books. These were known as "Livre d'Artist."

One such work was published in 1974, at the urging of the widow of the French poet Robert Desnos titled "Les pénalités de l'enfer ou les nouvelles Hébrides" (The Penalties of Hell or The New Hebrides). It was a set of 25 lithographs, five in black, and the others in colors.

In 2006 the book was displayed in “Joan Miro, Illustrated Books” at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. One critic said it is “an especially powerful set, not only for the rich imagery but also for the story behind the book's creation. The lithographs are long, narrow verticals, and while they feature Miró's familiar shapes, there's an unusual emphasis on texture." The critic continued, “I was instantly attracted to these four prints, to an emotional lushness, that's in contrast with the cool surfaces of so much of Miró's work. Their poignancy is even greater, I think, when you read how they came to be. The artist met and became friends with Desnos, perhaps the most beloved and influential surrealist writer, in 1925, and before long, they made plans to collaborate on a livre d'artist. Those plans were put on hold because of the Spanish civil war and World War II. Desnos' bold criticism of the latter led to his imprisonment in Auschwitz, and he died at age 45 shortly after his release in 1945. Nearly three decades later, at the suggestion of Desnos' widow, Miró set out to illustrate the poet's manuscript. It was his first work in prose, which was written in Morocco in 1922 but remained unpublished until this posthumous collaboration. “

[edit] Late life and death

Miró received a doctorate honoris causa in 1979 from the University of Barcelona.

He died bedridden at his home in Palma, Mallorca on December 25, 1983.^[9] He suffered from heart disease and had visited a clinic for respiratory problems two weeks before his death.^[10]

Many of his pieces are exhibited today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and Fundació Joan Miró in Montjuïc, Barcelona; his body is buried nearby, at the Montjuïc cemetery. Today, Miró's paintings sell for between US$250,000 and US$17 million; the latter was the auction price for the La Caresse des étoiles on May 6, 2008 and is the highest amount paid for one of his works.^[11]

[edit] Awards

Joan Miró i Ferrà won several awards in his lifetime. In 1954 he was given the Venice Biennale print making prize, in 1958 the Guggenheim International Award,^[12] and in 1980 he received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts from King Juan Carlos of Spain.^[13]

In 1981, the Palma de Mallorca City Council established the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, housed in the four studios that Miró had donated for the purpose.^[14]

[edit] In pop culture

• In 2006, the Artists Rights Society (who manage Miró's copyright in the United States) asked Google to remove a customized version of its logo put up to commemorate the artist on what would have been his 113th birthday; the ARS alleged that portions of specific artworks under their protection had been used in the logos, and that they had been used without permission. According to Artist Rights Society President Theodore Feder, "There are underlying copyrights to the works of Miró, and they are putting it up without having the rights".^[15] Google complied with the request, but denied that there was any violation of copyright.

• Joan Miró is mentioned in Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes, several times in the fourth section of the novel and twice towards the end. The protagonist of Eleven Minutes relates his style of art to that of Miró's.

• A statue by Miró named "Moonbird" is found on the campus of Springfield University in The Simpsons's episode "That 90's Show". Both Homer and the preppy students mispronounce Miró's name.

• Dave Brubeck Quartet used a painting as an album cover in their 1960s album Time Further Out.

• Miró's work is referenced in the music video for Donald Fagen's "New Frontier".

• One of the highest-profile chamber music groups in the United States, the Miró Quartet, was founded at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1995.

[edit] References

• Dupin, Jacques (1962). Joan Miró: Life and Work. Abrams. 

[edit] Sources

• Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró Life and Work, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publisher, New York City, 1962, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-19132
• Margit Rowell,Joan Miro -Selected Writing & Interviews, Da Capo Press Inc; New edition edition (1 Aug 1992) ISBN 978-0306804854

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joan Miró

• Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca (Joan and Pilar Miró Foundation in Mallorca)