Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona

Fundacio Joan Miro

Centro d'Estudis d' Art Contemporani

Parc de Montjuic

08038 Barcelona

http://fundaciomiro-bcn.org/

Joan Miro (1893-1983) is DJKung's favorite artist.  There are a couple of his works in the permanent collection in MOMA that are hung prominently.  I confess that I never really had a deep understanding of his work.  I merely saw bold, childlike lines, elementary shapes and deep colors --- without really picking up what he was about. 

Fundacio Joan Miro is a museum/library dedicated to his work.  It is situated on Montjuic (quite close to where our apartment was, actually) and has, in essence, an encyclopedic collection of this work: paintings, tapestries, sculpture, ceramics, mobiles (he was good friends with Calder, the mobile dude). The museum is housed in a gorgeous all-white mid-century building.  The roof and the grounds have some sculptures about.  There are two floors, with a part of the first floor devoted to special exhibits.  The museum is not too big and not too small, and you can cover everything in about two-three hours.  Definitely take the audio tour.

Miro, like his contemporaries, really believed in the modernist movement.  But I think he was unsatisfied in the way that it was too cold and abstract, and so struck out on his own to find his own voice. You can tell that his work is unlike other modern pieces.  His is funny and playful, with birds and stars and suns.  His sculptures have a very warm and organic feel to them.  I think that's what good art is, developing your own identify.

This one looks like a woman with her arms outstretched.

Here's Superfatty next to the boy sculpture outside.  I love how he captured the wide eyes and waddling gait that toddlers have!

It is too bad that we could not take pictures inside.  There were quite a few massive and jaw-droppping works (there is a two-storey tapestry hanging by the entrance) that I do not think get to travel around to other museums. 

The special exhibit that they had at the time was an expertly-curated collection of Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957).  This was a loaner from Centre Pompidou, Paris.  DJKung and I were blown away by this awesome exhibit.  You've probably seen his work in museums elsewhere, but taken together, you get a real sense that he studied and grappled with his convictions as to what modern art should be about.  He was one of the pioneers of the abstract movement, but later broke off to explore his own styles. 

So this exhibit traces his roots as a fresh newbie from Bohemia who moved to Paris to be an artist.  At the time, Fauvism was popular, so you see that in his work.  It seems that he was a very curious, perhaps even obsessive, painter.  Over almost six decades, he developed distinct lines of study, I think there were about eight--- movement in space, biophysics, and sound among them.  Towards the end of life, he tried to unify all these theories.  This exhibit has fantastic examples of all of his different periods.