Joan Miró

His life's work

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About the book Joan Miró, his life's work

This book compiles the most important works of Joan Miró, while at the same time carrying out a complete chronological tour of the life and the stylistic periods of the painter, who is considered one of the greatest exponents of contemporary art.

Combining artistic analysis with biographical facts, the book published by Dosde provides a complete portrait of Miró, an inescapable reference of the avant-garde who surpassed all the limitations of traditional painting to develop his own personal style. The book is illustrated with more than 90 pictures, amongst which include the most well known Miró paintings to historical paintings related to the artist.

This book on Joan Miró has been validated by the Successió Miró, the institution responsible for managing the artist's patrimony. Thus, the thoroughness of its contents is guaranteed, allowing us to get closer to the meaning and influences of the unmistakable artistic style of this constantly evolving artist, who throughout his career was linked to trends such as Surrealism and Expressionism.

Visual Edition

Joan Miró

  • It includes exclusive digital content
  • Made with environmentally friendly paper
  • Official licensed product
  • Multilanguage: Available in 8 languages

About the book Joan Miró, his life's work

This book compiles the most important works of Joan Miró, while at the same time carrying out a complete chronological tour of the life and the stylistic periods of the painter, who is considered one of the greatest exponents of contemporary art.

Combining artistic analysis with biographical facts, the book published by Dosde provides a complete portrait of Miró, an inescapable reference of the avant-garde who surpassed all the limitations of traditional painting to develop his own personal style. The book is illustrated with more than 90 pictures, amongst which include the most well known Miró paintings to historical paintings related to the artist.

This book on Joan Miró has been validated by the Successió Miró, the institution responsible for managing the artist's patrimony. Thus, the thoroughness of its contents is guaranteed, allowing us to get closer to the meaning and influences of the unmistakable artistic style of this constantly evolving artist, who throughout his career was linked to trends such as Surrealism and Expressionism.

Videos Joan Miró

Readers opinions
(2)

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Reviews
(2)

Salustiano (Barcelona)
Salustiano (Barcelona)
It is a book with many historical data and high quality photos. Miró is one of my favorite artists and I think that the book reflects all his career through his paintings. Thank you
Lucía (Manresa)
Lucía (Manresa)
Miró is, for me, a reference of contemporary art and there are not many books that reflect his career in this way, showing the evolution in his works. I liked it a lot, it's complete and well documented.

Readers opinions
(2)

Salustiano (Barcelona)
Salustiano (Barcelona)
It is a book with many historical data and high quality photos. Miró is one of my favorite artists and I think that the book reflects all his career through his paintings. Thank you
Lucía (Manresa)
Lucía (Manresa)
Miró is, for me, a reference of contemporary art and there are not many books that reflect his career in this way, showing the evolution in his works. I liked it a lot, it's complete and well documented.

Additional Information

  • Additional Information
  • Subtitle: His life's work
  • Weight (g): 460
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Size (cm): 19,5 x 22,5
  • Author: Dosde
  • Pages: 0
  • Edition: Visual Edition
  • language
  • Spanish
  • English
  • French
  • Italian
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
  • Portuguese
  • isbn
  • 978-84-9103-072-0
  • 978-84-9103-073-7
  • 978-84-9103-074-4
  • 978-84-9103-075-1
  • 978-84-9103-076-8
  • 978-84-9103-077-5
  • 978-84-9103-078-2
  • 978-84-9103-079-9
  • sku
  • 45-003-00
  • 45-003-01
  • 45-003-02
  • 45-003-03
  • 45-003-04
  • 45-003-05
  • 45-003-07
  • 45-003-09

The first works of Joan Miró

Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893, although the start of his artistic career was greatly influenced by the landscape of Mont-roig, a small town in southern Catalonia where his family used to spend the holidays. This rural environment provided the painter with the necessary energy to carry out his first important compositions, which were dedicated to highlighting the virtues of country life.

Just as explained in these books on Joan Miró, at first the artist was influenced by movements such as Fauvism and Cubism, although with the passing of time he developed a more personal style, distinguished by its detail. This later period included La Masía, one of Joan Miró's most important works. With this canvas, the artist combined realism with abstraction, introducing geometric figures of symbolic character. Thus, he anticipated some of the features that would be present in his later works.

Surrealism

In the 1920's, Miró settled in Paris, a dynamic cosmopolitan city where he was able to further his knowledge of the avant-garde and establish contacts that would be of great importance for the future.

During this period, Miró radically moved away from his former work to adopt a language very close to the postulates of Surrealism, a movement that defended the validity of the world of the subconscious and irrational impulses. Amongst the first pictures of Miró of Surrealist style are The Harlequin's Carnival and The Dialogue of Insects, compositions full of imaginary, oneiric characters.

Despite the fact that Miró soon became one of the main references of Surrealism, the artist resisted following the dictates of the most dogmatic sector of the movement. During these years, the artist participated in projects that received harsh critics from the most politicized Surrealists, such as his collaborations with the entrepreneur Serge Diaghilev. Likewise, the painter started delving into much more experimental terrain, investigating the possibilities of techniques such as collage. This desire to break away was affirmed by the artist who aimed “to assassinate painting”.

Years of conflict

In the 1930's, Miró distanced himself from the Surrealist movement to move towards an even more expressive style, which reflected his concern about the hectic political and social context of the time. The outbreak in 1936 of the Spanish Civil War forced the painter to stay with his wife and daughter in Paris, where he denounced the horror of war through various works of marked drama. This period included the so-called “peintres sauvages”, considered as some of the most expressive works of Miró, such as Woman and Dog in front of the Moon.

When the start of the Second World War seemed imminent, Miró moved to the coast of Normandy and began a series of introspective compositions that established the aesthetic parameters that would guide the artist in the next stages of his career. This was the period of the Constellations, a watercolour series on paper that established a new iconographic universe, made up of stylised figures united by complex networks of lines.

International success

In the year 1940, Miró ended his exile in France and returned to Spain, where he was marginalized by the authorities for supporting the losing side of the Civil War. Despite this isolation, the artist saw how his work was starting to gain recognition abroad. Miró's paintings reached an increasingly wide public thanks to the retrospectives organised by institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which in turn contributed to trigger the demand for the painter 's works in the international art market.

While his fame steadily grew in countries like the United States, the new epicentre of cultural innovation, the artist alternated his painting with other media such as lithography, sculpture and ceramics. The last technique in the list included the works that Miró carried out in collaboration with the potter Josep Llorens Artigas, such as the walls of Harvard University and the headquarters of Unesco in Paris.

The latter years

Established in Palma de Mallorca from 1956, Miró worked at a very intense pace until the end of his days, continually reassessing his style and participating in all kinds of projects in order to publicise his universe to the general public.

In the 1960's, the artist worked under the influence of Abstract Expressionism, simplifying his stroke even more in order to search for a more direct language. Works by Miró in this period, such as the triptych Blue, show this stylistic turnabout, where the painter showed his capacity to excel once again.

In the 1970's, Miró continued investigating new forms of expression, enchaining diverse phases of creative effervescence. During this decade, the painter also put a lot of energy into his monumental sculptures, amongst which include the emblematic Woman and Bird in Barcelona, shown in the Miró flipbook published by Dosde. Likewise, the artist was able to carry out one of his most ambitious ideas: the creation of separate art foundations in Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, aiming to promote contemporary art.

When he no longer had the strength to continue working in his studio, Miró focused on drawing, using any paper that he had within his reach to get his ideas down. They were the last demonstration of the artist’s talent, who died in 1983 in Palma, after a life marked by constant experimentation.