1893? b. April 20th. Joan Miro i Ferra in Barcelona.
Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist.
His father was a goldsmith and his mother from a family of watchmakers
from Mallorca.
==1900-1920==
==1920's==
==1930's==
==1940's==
==1950's==
==later Life==
==1900-1920==
1907 Attended the Lonja School of Fine Arts in Barcelona
1913 Meets Jose Dalmau ->, an art dealer in Barcelona and Joan Prats
both to be lifelong friends.
1917 Meets Francis Picabia on his visit to Barcelona.
By this time he has read Guillaume Apollinaire.
Nord-Sud ->;
a reference to Pierre Reverdy's new publication.
Attends performances of SergeiDiaghilev's Ballets Russes.
1918 Jan; first one-man show at Dalmau's Gallery.
Later that year he became a member of the Agrupacio Courbet, to which the
ceramist Joseph Llorens Artigas -> belonged.
Spent the second half of the year in Montroig.
Wagon Tracks
Vegetable Garden with Donkey
1919 First visit to Paris where he first met Pablo Picasso who bought his
self portrait.
==1920's==
1920 La Table: nature morte au lapin->.
Visits Paris again in the winter, setting the pattern to return each year,
spending the summers in Catalunya.
1921 In Paris has an adjoining studio to Andre Masson and has frequent visits
from Roland Tual, Michel Leiris, Armand Salacrou and Georges Limbour.
Standing Nude
1922 Meets Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
The Farm ->.
1923 Through Andre Masson he meets Michel Leiris and probably Antonin Artaud,
Robert Desnos, Jean Dubuffet, Paul Eluard, Marcel Jouhandeau (Fr) ->,
Georges Limbour, Raymond Queneau and Armand Salacrou.
He also meets Ernest Hemingway ~>, who purchases The farm, and Ezra Pound.
Tilled Field - first Surrealist masterpiece.
1924 His painting style took a turn to Surrealism.
His friends at this period were Andre Masson and Max Ernst Max Jacob,
Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Benjamin Peret, Armand Salacrou
and Roland Tual.
The Hunter ~>
Influenced by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky?, and Jean Arp.
Harlequins Carnival ->.
1925 Meets Andre Breton.
Siesta -> and Bathing Woman ->.
1926 Moves into a new studio at 22 Rue Tourlaque, in the Citee des Fusains.
His neighbours are Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Paul Eluard, Camille Goemans
and Rene Magritte.
Collaborated with Max Ernst on designs for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes;
which earns a formal Protestation from Andre Breton and Louis Aragon.
1926 - 1928 Cadavre Exquis with Andre Breton, Yves Tanguy,
Marcel Duchamp, Max Morise, Man Ray.
1927 Musique, Seine, Michel, Bataille, et moi ~>
References Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille.
1928 Cadavre Exquis with Man Ray.
He was originally part of the Generation of '27 -> a collective made up of
Spanish poets, writers, painters and film makers that included Luis Bunuel,
Miguel Hernandez ->,Jose Maria Hinojosa -> and
Federico Garcia Lorca.
Travelled to the Netherlands visiting the Rijksmuseum .
He took home two colour postcards: The Lute Player -> - Hendrick Martensz Sorgh (1661)
and Children Teaching a Cat to Dance -> by Jan Havicksz Steen.
In Paris introduced to Roland Penrose.
Began a lifelong friendship with Alexander Calder.
1929 Cadavre Exquis with Yves Tanguy, Max Morise, Man Ray.
Visits Barcelona.
m. cousin, Pilar Juncosa in Palma de Mallorca.
Knew collector and patron Rene Gaffe.
==1930's==
1930 Introduced to Eileen Agar.
1931 Daughter Dolores was born July 17th.
Contributed to Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution?.
1932 Through Joan Prats he meets the architect Josep Lluis Sert.
His Dealer Pierre Loeb? contacts Pierre Matisse to help sell his paintings.
1933 Publication of Enfances by Georges Hugnet, the first book illustrated by Miro.
Friends with Alberto Giacometti.
1934 Signs a contract with Pierre Matisse, who represents him in the United States.
1936 Spanish Civil War. Returns to Paris.
1937 Set up in the gallery of his Paris dealer, Pierre Loeb?.
Meets Remedios Varo
Still Life with Old Shoe -> in direct response to the war.
Exhibits at the Spanish Pavilion of the Paris World Fair.
He also painted an anti-Franco poster entitled Help Spain ->.
1939 Published Harlequin's Carnival in Verve together with a poem
==1940's==
1940 Returns to Palma de Mallorca.
Shuzo Takiguchi published the first monograph on Miro.
The Nightingale s Song at Midnight and the Morning Rain -> and Constellation: The Morning Star ->
1941 One man show at MOMA, New York; unable to attend.
1942 Moves to Barcelona.
1945 Aimee Maeght and Marguerite Maeght, opened in Paris.
They become patrons of Miro.
Constellations shown in New York with Catalogue introduction by Andre Breton.
Influenced Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock.
1947 Provides original artwork for the catalogue of Le Surrealisme en 1947
or Please Touch at Galerie Maeght, Paris.
Travelled to USA for the first time. During his stay in New York he frequents
Stanley Hayter?'s studio Atelier 17 and collaborates with [Ruthven Todd]]
who introduces him to Len Lye.
Re-meets Max Ernst and his new wife Dorothea Tanning.
Exposition internationale du surrealisme at the Galerie Maeght, Paris,
organised by Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp.
==1950's==]
1951 Retrospective at the MoMA.
1954 Starts a new period of collaboration with Josep Llorens Artigas in Gallifa,
near Barcelona.
1956 Moved into the villa of his dreams in Palma de Mallorca, built by
the architect Josep Lluis Sert ->.
1957 Satrap in the College of Pataphysics together with Jean Ferry,
Michel Leiris and Rene Clair.
Illustrates La Bague d'Aurore from essays written by Rene Crevel in 1925
as Lautrémont, ta bague d'aurore nous protège and published in the Belgian magazine
Disque vert (see ~>) - 'Comme si' and 'Les portes du merveilleux'.
1959 Andre Breton asked him to represent Spain in The Homage to Surrealism
exhibition together with works by Enrique Tabara ->,
Salvador Dali, and Eugenio Granell.
==Later Life==
1961 Nov. in New York. An abstract self-portrait by Miro, drawn in colored chalk
on Hotel Gladstone [New York] stationery, with a note to Dwight Ripley ->.
1968 He finished a commission for two large ceramic murals at the UNESCO buildings in Paris.
1979 Tapestry of the Foundation ->.
1983? Died Dec. 25th. Palma de Mallorca
See work ->and wikipainting -> also Silence in Painting ->.
See web -> and biography ->.
See The Formative Friendship Between Miró and Calder ~>
Bibliography
Miro -> - Roland Penrose (1970)
See Timeline