Joan Miro i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Spanish (Catalan) painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain to the family of a Goldsmith and Watchmaker. 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, Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods and his desire to "kill", "murder", or "rape" them in favor of more contemporary means of expression.

Young Miro was drawn towards the arts community that was gathering in Montparnasse and in 1920 moved to Paris. There, under the influence of the poets and writers, he developed his unique style: organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn with a sharp line. Generally thought of as a Surrealist because of his interest in automatism and the use of sexual symbols (for example, ovoids with wavy lines emanating from them), Miro’s style was influenced in varying degrees by Surrealism and Dada, yet he rejected membership to any artistic movement in the interwar European years. André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, described him as "the most Surrealist of us all." Miro confessed to creating one of his most famous works, Harlequin's Carnival, under similar circumstances:

"How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..."

Career

In 1926, he collaborated with Max Ernst on designs for Sergei Diaghilev. With Miro's help, Ernst pioneered the technique of grattage, in which he troweled pigment onto his canvases. Miro married Pilar Juncosa in Palma de Mallorca on October 12, 1929; their daughter Dolores was born July 17, 1931. Shuzo Takiguchi published the first monograph on Miro in 1940. In 1959, André Breton asked Miro to represent Spain in The Homage to Surrealism exhibition together with works by Enrique Tábara, Salvador Dalí, and Eugenio Granell.

Miro dabbled in architecture when he designed the Maeght Foundation museum in Saint-Paul-en-Forêt, France, which was completed in 1964.

Experimental style

By not becoming an official member of the Surrealists, Miro was free to experiment with any artistic style that he wished without compromising his position within the group and being accused of not being a “true” Surrealist. He pursued his own interests in the art world, both within and between groups which politicked and jockeyed for prominence. Miro’s artistic autonomy, in that he did not adhere to any one particular style, is reflected in his work and his willingness to work with several media.In an interview with biographer Walter Erben, Miro expressed his dislike for art critics, saying, they "are more concerned with being philosophers than anything else. They form a preconceived opinion, then they look at the work of art. Painting merely serves as a cloak in which to wrap their emaciated philosophical systems."

Four-dimensional painting is a theoretical type of painting Miro proposed in which painting would transcend its two-dimensionality and even the three-dimensionality of sculpture.

In his final decades Miro accelerated his work in different media producing hundreds of ceramics, including the Wall of the Moon and Wall of the Sun at the UNESCO building in Paris. He also made temporary window paintings (on glass) for an exhibit. In the last years of his life Miro wrote his most radical and least known ideas, exploring the possibilities of gas sculpture and four-dimensional painting.

He died bedridden, at his home in Palma, Mallorca on December 25, 1983. He suffered from heart disease, and had visited a clinic for respiratory problems two weeks before his death. Many of his pieces are exhibited today in the Fundació Joan Miro in Montjuïc, Barcelona and the U.S. National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; he is buried nearby, at the Montjuïc cemetery. Today, his paintings sell for between US$250,000 and US$8 million.

Awards

Joan Miro won several awards in his lifetime. In 1958 he was given the Venice Biennale print making prize, in May 1959 the Guggenheim International Award, and in 1980 he received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts from King Juan Carlos of Spain. He also received an award for all of his works at the Miro Museum, found in the United states, for all of his great works. This reward was called the Miro Memorial Award, which was given to him after his death.