Joan Miró

Joan Miró was a world-renowned Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, ceramicist and printmaker who was born in Barcelona. He is arguably one of the greatest colourists and abstract artists of the 20th century and his work has influenced many artists. He is respected and collected all over the world.

Miró drew on memory, fantasy, and the irrational to create works of art that are visual analogues of surrealist poetry. These dreamlike visions often have a whimsical or humorous quality, containing images of playfully distorted animal forms, twisted organic shapes, and odd geometric constructions. Amorphous amoebic shapes alternate with sharply drawn lines, spots and curlicues, all positioned with seeming nonchalance. Miró later produced highly generalized, ethereal works in which his organic forms and figures are reduced to abstract spots, lines and bursts of colours. He concentrated his interest on the symbol, not giving too much importance to the representing theme, but to the way the symbol emerged as the piece of work.