Miró Milano, 1981

In 1928 his ever-evolving artistic research led him to want to reinterpret the works of the great painters of the 16th century using the forms of advertising as well. He simultaneously produced works of deconstruction using collages. In 1927 he made his first poem painting that features direct inscription on the canvas of phrases of a poetic nature. During this period he used to spend winters in Paris and summers on the Montroig farm. During his Surrealist period (1924-1930) he became convinced of the social role of art and its ability to reach the masses; that is why by exploiting his wit and a keen sense of humor he painted by affixing his poetic inscriptions to the canvas. From this period is the famous painting, “Harlequin’s Carnival.” In 1929 he married Pilar Juncosa in Palma de Mallorca: the two had a daughter, Maria Dolores. In the same years he continued his experimentation by producing lithographic works, etchings and sculptures. The civil war that had just broken out in Spain affects him deeply, so he tries to help his compatriots by raising funds to support the republic. In 1937 he also painted a large mural to draw attention to Spain in the Spanish pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris. In 1954 he won the prize for graphic art at the Venice Biennale and in 1958 the Guggenheim International Prize. In the early 1960s he was greatly influenced by American painting, which led him toward an increasingly insistent abstractionism and a true domination of pure color. In 1972 he created the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, devoting himself simultaneously to set design and sculpture. In the last period of his life he also devoted much time to ceramics, creating two works for theUnesco building in Paris: the Wall of the Moon and the Wall of the Sun. As he grew older, his artistic ideas became even more radical; he even devoted himself to real experiments in gas sculpture and four-dimensional painting. Joan Miró died in Palma de Mallorca on December 25, 1983, at the age of ninety.