MIRO

Juan Miro Ferra was born in Barcelona in 1893. His father compelled him to enroll at the School of Commerce of that town in 1907, but he already had a learning for art and attended courses at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts. After a nervous breackdown in 1911, Miro decided to become an artist and the following year joined the Gali School of Art until 1915, the year he met the potter Artigas. The Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona held his first one-man show in 1918, comprising 64 paintings and drawings. Two years later, Miro went up to Paris for the first time, meeting Picasso ; in 1921 Miro rented a studio there, in which he spent the next few years in great poverty.

The Pierre Loeb Gallery held his first one-man show in France in 1925, which was a major event for both the artist and the surrealist movement. The following year, Miro and Ernst designed the sets for Diaghilev Ballet "Romeo and Juliet". In 1929 Miro married Pilar Juncosa in Majorca, and the coupel settled in Paris. In the early Thirties, numerous one-man shows in Paris and his first one in New York acknowledged him to be a major artist. Miro then made his first prints (lithographs) for Tristan Tzara's "L'arbre du voyageur" ; later Miro was to illustrate the same writer's "Parler seul" (1948) with 70 prints (lithographs), and "L'Antitête" with 8 etchings. After world war 2, during which Miro found refuge in Varengeville in Normandy, he settled in Palma and make the Constellations series, and in 1946 the New York Museum of Modern Art held a big retrospective show of his work. In 1947, Miro made his first ceramic pieces with Artigas ; in 1953 Miro was to made 386 pieces. The Basle Kunsthalle held a retrospective show of his work in 1952.

In 1954, Miro was awarded the engraving prize at the Venice Biennale. Between 1956 and 1958, Miro made the wall decorations for the UNESCO building in Paris.In the sixties and seventies, big Miro exhibitions were held london and New York. The Miro foundation in Barcelona was founded in 1975, to which the artist donated 5000 drawings and a lot of his prints. He was made Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Mallorca in 1979. At the time he was making large-scale pieces of sculpture.

Joan Miro was making as well as prints ; between 1960 and 1983, he made no less than 1000 original etchings. He especially expressed his creative genius in his colour aquatints, among which the major prints are "la captive", "la calebasse", le caissier", "la grève noire", le vieil irlandais" and the archipels sauvages series in 1970, large-scale aquatints and etchings on the theme of underwater depths, the fascinating etching astre du marécage from 1967, "La marchande de couleurs", and several others series today very famous such as rupestres series, Gaudi series or the very nice Enrajolats series. We can also add for the end of the 70's, the "Personatge i estels" and "Els gossos" series, printed in the Joan Barbara atelier in Barcelona.

Lithograph has also a very important place in the work of Miro, he has made over 800 during his life printed mostly with Fernand Mourlot then with Adrien Maeght.

Miro illustrated a lot of books with prints (lithographs and etchings). From 1928 with "Il était une petite pie" from Lize Hirtz (8 pochoirs in colors) to 1985 with "Passage de l'Egyptienne" series by André Pierre de Mandiargues (12 etchings in colors), Miro illustrated more than 250 books. Among these publications are some of the twentieth century's masterpieces in bibliophiles' art book. These include "Les Adonides" by Prévert (1975) with 45 colour etchings ; Fissures album with Michel Leiris with 15 etchings and aquatints, "L'Enfance d'Ubu", with 23 original lithographs ; Le miroir de l'homme par les bêtes with 4 original atchings ; René Char's "Le marteau sans maître" with 26 colour prints (etchings and aquatints) ; Jacques Dupin's "L'Issue dérobée" with dry points and colour aquatints etc.

Miro has also print for collective books. "Vingt-deux poèmes" by Jean Cassou, with an original etching of Miro has also prints of Tapiès, Chagall, Soulages, Poliakoff, Masson, or the album Hommage à Lacourière where Miro made a marvellous etching, the book is included also prints from Picasso, Masson, Giacometti, Ernst.

Miro died on Christmas day in 1983 in Palma.

Miro graveur 1
A lot of catalogues are available for the prints of Miro :
- Miro lithographe, in 6 volumes for all the lithographs realized by Miro between 1930 and 1981. Maeght publisher. All the volumes are in limited edition and contained original lithographs.
- Miro graveur, in 4 volumes, (here the first volume reproduced) published by Lelong gallery, reproduced all the engravings of Miro realized between 1928 and 1983.(etchings and aquatints). The 4 books contained original woodcuts of the artist and are in limited edition.
- Joan Miro, les livres illustrés, for all the illustrated books with original prints from Miro. Patrick Cramer publisher.

"My characters have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified, they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details".
Quote of Joan Miro.

- Joan Miro. Catalogue of an exhibition Miro in the art gallery Bordas in Venice in 1995. About 110 works of Miro are here described and reproduced, lithographs, etchings, rare catalogues as well as illustrated books. (A toute épreuve, Ubu roi, l'Antitête, La bague d'aurore etc.). The marvellous etchings from the series Gaudi were also proposed in this very important exhibition of prints of Miro.

- Miro, gravures et lithographies. Catalogue of an exhibition Miro in the Gerald Cramer Gallery in Genève in 1969. Rare prints from Miro are here reproduced, lithographs and etchings, including the very nice series from 1968 "Tracé sur la paroi". Eiditon of the catalogue at 1650 copies numbered, the cover of the catalogue is an original lithograph from the artist.

- Joan Miro. Catalogue of the exhibition Joan Miro in the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 1941. About 50 paintings of Miro are reproduced here, whose some fascinatings works from the years 1918 and 1919. Text from James Jonhson Sweeney :"Gaiety, sunshine, health -color, humor, rhythm : these are the notes which characterize the works of Joan Miro. Joan Miro is above all else a painter. This is what distinguishes him from so many of his best known contemporaries. This is the basis on which he has built the most revolutionary contribution made within the strictly pictorial form by any painter of the generation immediately following that of Pablo Picasso. But Miro is also a poet. "What really counts" he said "is to trip the soul naked. Painting or poetry is made as we make love, a total embrace, prudence thrown to the wind, nothing held back".

- Miro, expo Gianadda. I have chosen to present this catalogue because it is probably the most complete for the works of Joan Miro. More than 200 works of Miro are here shown, paintings of course but also gouaches, drawings, prints and illustrated books. This exhibition of Miro was held in Martigny in Switzerland, in the famous Fundation Gianadda, in 1997. I have found in this catalogue a very nice sentence from Joan Miro himself, he said about his works "This is the color of my dreams".

- Joan Miro. Important catalogue from an exhibition Joan Miro in the Cultural Center of Pelaires in Spain in 1999, devoted to the works of paper of Miro, gouaches, drawings, prints, and also sculptures. Important biography in the end of the catalogue. Many very nice photos of Miro are also reproduced.


You can also find some important catalogues of exhibition of Joan Miro while clicking on certain images of prints for sale or already sold.