The Fundació Joan Miró (Joan Miró Foundation) exists to promote awareness of the work and personality of Joan Miró and to present exhibitions of artists from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: an open door to the exchange of ideas and disciplines that, while always looking to the future, has both international prestige and deep roots in Catalonia.
The Fundació is located in an exceptional building designed by the architect Josep Lluís Sert. It stands in the Parc de Montjuïc, enjoying magnificent views over Barcelona, and houses the world’s largest public collection of Joan Miró paintings.
The Fundació Joan Miró is a remarkable space created by Joan Miró himself with the idea of making art accessible to all.
The collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures and works on paper displayed at the Fundació is one of the most comprehensive selections of Miró’s oeuvre, offering a thorough overview of all the stages of his life and career.
A variety of spaces allow visitors to venture into an interdisciplinary exploration of the highly personal language and production of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A series of overarching themes illustrate key concepts in Miró’s work and in the thinking of his times, while reflecting the artist’s desire to transcend conventional painting.
HIGHLIGHTS
VIEWS FROM PATI NORD
An exceptional balcony over Barcelona that enjoys one of the most privileged views of the city. Surrounded by rationalist architecture by Sert and Joan Miró work.
An exceptional balcony over Barcelona that enjoys one of the most privileged views of the city. Surrounded by rationalist architecture by Sert and Joan Miró work.
MORNING STAR
In the late summer of 1939, one month before the outbreak of the Second World War, Miró moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer, in Normandy, hoping to escape from the harsh circumstances surrounding…
In the late summer of 1939, one month before the outbreak of the Second World War, Miró moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer, in Normandy, hoping to escape from the harsh circumstances surrounding him. A period of seclusion would help his process of introspection, in which the night sky with its celestial bodies played an essential role.
Constellations, a series of twenty-three washes on paper, seems to attempt a representation of the entire order of the cosmos, with weightless figures that relate to the Earth and share their universe with a large number of celestial signs.
FIGURE IN FRONT OF THE SUN
Figure in front of the Sun illustrates the controlled gesture that distinguishes Miró's painting in the late seventies, an expressive freedom with no clear precedent in his work but with…
Figure in front of the Sun illustrates the controlled gesture that distinguishes Miró's painting in the late seventies, an expressive freedom with no clear precedent in his work but with an undeniable rigor of composition.
Black is the point of departure, employed by the artist to outline and structure the painting. The incorporation of the other colours is governed by the divisions and the empty spaces.
In spite of his spontaneity, Miró never neglects the composition: the elimination of any one element would destroy the overall balance.
FOUNDATION TAPESTRY
In 1972, in collaboration with Josep Royo, Miró produced his first textiles known as "sobreteixims", which were somewhere between painting, collage and tapestry. A year later, when he received commissions…
In 1972, in collaboration with Josep Royo, Miró produced his first textiles known as "sobreteixims", which were somewhere between painting, collage and tapestry. A year later, when he received commissions for monumental tapestries for New York and Washington, he also produced one for the Fundació. The transfer of a pictorial language to a medium such as tapestry, with its own specific difficulties, called for an adjustment that was materialised primarily in the expressive use of textures.
In 1988, the NorthAmerican Steve Reich, one of the leading figures of minimalism, composed a piece about the Jewish Holocaust. Almost thirty years later, this video work by Beatriz Caravaggio confers visual life on the score interpreted by the Kronos Quartet.
The exhibition features the Gaudí Series prints, which Miró produced as a tribute to the architect in 1979, and a selection of Miró’s sculptures which establish a dialogue with Joaquim Gomis’ photographs of Gaudí’s architecture.
