Joan Miro: 1893-1983

by Janis Mink (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.99

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $5.16

  Joan Miro (1893-1983) is one of the most significant Spanish painters of the 20th century. His early work clearly shows the influence of Fauvism and Cubism. The Catalan landscape also shapes the themes and treatment of these initial works. In his travels, Miro encountered the intellectual avant-garde of his time. His friends included Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, Andr Masson, Jean Arp and Pablo Picasso. From the mid-twenties onward, Miro strove to leave direct objective references behind and developed the pictograms that typify his style. The pictures of this period, which include perhaps the most beautiful and significant ones of his whole oeuvre, dispense with spatiality and an unambiguous reference to objects. From now on, the surfaces are defined by numerals, writing, abstract emblems, and playful figures and creatures. Nineteen-forty-four saw the beginning of his extensive graphic oeuvre, ceramics, monumental mural works, and sculptures. In these works, too, the Catalan artist sought the solid foundation of a figurative, symbolic art with orientation as regards content: faces, stars, moons, rudimentary animal forms, letters. Joan Miro developed in several stages his characteristic flowing calligraphic style and his world of forms resembling shorthand symbols.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $14.92

  One of a series of monographs introducing the work of 20th-century artists, this text is devoted to the life and career of the Surrealist Joan Miro. Born in Barcelona, Miro became enthralled by the work of the Cubist and Fauvist artists, who influenced his early style. His free-form abstractions draw on fantasy, dream and myth, and many have been characterized as attempts at psychic automatism, or direct transmission from the subconscious. After 1930 he developed his lyrical mature style, distinguished by playful justaposition of freely-flowing lines and brightly-coloured abstract or organic forms. During World War II Miro created a series of works known as The Constellations in response to the disasters of war. Later he produced a series of monumental works, including murals for hotels and universities, and a huge ceramic mural for the UNESCO building in Paris. His other work includes a large body of lithographs, a medium especially suited to his simplified forms. Illustrated with more than 70 of his works, this book offers an overview of Joan Miro's prolific career.