European

Joan Miro

Spain 1893-1983
Composition: Essence of the Earth 75.0003

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Miró's work remained true to many Surrealist principles throughout his career. His paintings and works on paper reflect his belief in the release of the creative forces from the control of logic and reason. Mixing abstraction, "primitivism," automatism, and a great degree of playfulness, images like Composition reveal Miró's belief in experimentation and the essential elements of art-line, form, and color. Son of a Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer, Miró visited Paris in 1919 and from then until the Spanish Civil War began in 1936 he wintered in Paris and summered at his family's farm near Barcelona. Miró's early work shows the influence of many early 20th century movements-Fauvism, Cubism, and Dadaism, but he is most closely aligned with the Surrealists, whose first manifesto he signed in 1924.

 

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