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Joan Miro, 1893-1983
Joan Miro was born at Montroig near Barcelona on April 20, 1893 and admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona at the age of 14. In 1910, his parents made him give up painting for trade. In 1912, he returned to painting in the Gali Academy (Barcelona) and first showed his work in 1918. In 1919, he went to Paris for the first time, where he made friends with Picasso. He settled there in 1920 and joined the Dadaist movement.
Major dates in Miro's life:
1921 Ð he had his first exhibition in Paris.
1922 Ð painted "The Farm."
1925 Ð joined the Surrealists.
1930 Ð he did his first lithographs for Tristan TzaraÕa LÕArbredes Voyageurs. 1932-33 Ð completed his first etching, "Childhood."
1938 Ð executed his first drypoints, the black and red series, and his first linocut. 1940 Ð the war caused him to leave Paris for Majorca and then for Barcelona, where in 1944 he did the set of fifty lithographs in black and white entitled "Barcelona." That same year, he returned to Paris and in 1947 went to America.
1948-50 Ð he did seventy-two color lithographs for TzaraÕs "Parler seul."
1950 Ð completed his first color woodcuts.
1954 Ð he was awarded the Graphic Art Prize at the Venice Biennale.
1958 Ð finished his hundred color woodcuts for EluardÕs A toure Epreuve.
1962 Ð the Musee National dÕ Art Moderne, Paris, finally organized its first Miro retrospective.
1967 Ð he was awarded the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh.
1971-72 Ð Miro rendered homage to his great friend Joan Prats with a big show of lithographs, Sala Gaspar, Barcelona, where later he also showed tapestries and sculptures.
1974 Ð he had a major exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris, of painting, sculptures, and ceramics. The Musee dÕArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris presented his complete graphic work.
1975-76 Ð in Barcelona, in the Parque de Mintjuich, the Fundacio Joan Miro, built by J. L. Sert, opened and was inaugurated officially in 1976 with a show of 475 drawings (1901-75) from among the five thousand donated by Miro.
1983 Ð his ninetieth birthday was celebrated by events at the Galeries Maeght Lelong and Adrien Maeght in Paris and the Fundacio Miro. Ill for many months, Miro died on December 25th in Palma de Majorca.