Biography
André Breton called him “the most Surrealist of us all”, yet Joan Miró was not a member of the group. A peerless figure of modern art, adamant in his pictorial research, Miró claimed absolute liberty from any norm – Cubist, Surrealist, Abstract – that might have constrained his singular expressions as a painter, sculptor, ceramist, illustrator of artists’ books, and designer for the theatre.
The Catalan artist has been much admired by painters and writers alike. Ernest Hemingway, who purchased his 1921 painting “The Farm”, said: “It has in it all that you feel about Spain when you are there and all that you feel when you are away and cannot go there. No one else has been able to paint these two very opposing things.”
Over the last half-century, Miró’s international fame has grown steadily. Since the early 1970s, large retrospectives have been dedicated to him in New York, London, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Washington, D.C., Zurich, and Tokyo. Galerie Lelong has a long history of exhibiting Miró’s work; it is the publisher of a complete catalogue raisonné of his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics. Jacques Dupin, poet and co-founder of the Galerie Lelong, was a lifelong friend and world-leading connoisseur of Miró’s art.
Major museums worldwide have collected Miró’s work. Two foundations bear his name: the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, and the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Palma. In 2018, the Grand Palais in Paris dedicated to Miró his largest retrospective to date.
