The Berardo Collection

Spanish painter, sculptor, designer and decorator. Although he was never really a member of any artistic movement, Miró distinguished himself, as Picasso did, by the formal and technical innovations he introduced to 20th century art. In 1907, he began his artistic apprenticeship in Barcelona at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de La Lonja and, in 1912, he moved on to another school run by Francisco Gali, where he concentrated on the study of the Impressionists and Fauvists. His first paintings date from this period. In 1918, he was one of the first members of the Courbet group, an association of artists founded by Josep Artigas and students from the Circulo Artistico de Sant Lluc and he had his first one-man show at the Llu’s Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona. This was not very successful and led him to reconsider his methods, particularly after 1920. In the following year, he held another exhibition at the La Licorne Gallery, in Paris, where he didn't sell a single picture. Although he strove to avoid it, Miró was influenced by some movements during the 20s, namely Dadaism and Surrealism. In 1925, the Pierre Gallery in Paris exhibited Miró's work once again individually and together with works by Picasso and Paul Klee. Between 1929 and 1931 he sought to break all existing conventions, using collage technique, in which he incorporated rather unusual objects. Between 1934 and 1936, he produced a new series of Wild Paintings that showed the violence which he had, up until then, controlled. Aggression, sexuality and drama took on human form, deformed and grotesque, blistering on strange surfaces and materials. The first two years of the 40s marked the end of the Abstract influences on his work. 1941 saw the first major retrospective on Miró's work at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) which was extremely important for him, in terms of international recognition. In 1946, he exhibited at the Maeght Gallery, in Paris and produced numerous prints, lithographs and ceramics. In the 50s, he began to concentrate on sculpture and his creations in the various areas were characterised by the simultaneous presence of two distinct approaches: one of careful, thoughtful production, whilst the other was extremely spontaneous. In the 60s, there was a great change in Miró's work: it became dramatic, almost tragic with colour being almost suppressed by the weight of the black. In the final years of his career, he continued to experiment with new techniques, namely in the illustration of books and posters. It was in this period that he was awarded the Guggenheim Foundation Grand Prix (1963). After 1966, Miró worked intensely on sculptures based, mainly, on small objects he brought together in diverse and surprising ways. Stones, branches and other objects that he found during his walks along the beach were united in a manner which still has something of the Surrealist but, at the same time, showed his need to be in contact with nature and simple things.