Sunday, July 26, 2009

Stevens Discovers Joan Miro At The Barnes Foundation

While visiting the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Tom Stevens came upon a painting by Joan Miro he thought looked like it might have come from a surrealist artist but was, in fact, something completely different.

Joan Miro i Ferra (April 20, 1893 - December 25, 1983) was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramist born in Barcelona, Spain. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods and declared an "assassination of painting" in favor of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

Young Miro was drawn towards the arts community that was gathering in Montparnasse and in 1920 moved to Paris. There, under the influence of the poets and writers, he developed his unique style: organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn with a sharp line. Generally thought of as a Surrealist because of his interest in automatism and the use of sexual symbols, Miro's style was influenced in varying degrees by Surrealism and Dada, yet he rejected membership in any artistic movement in the interwar European years. Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, described him as "the most Surrealist of us all".

Photos of his paintings have been uploaded to the Joan Miro Facebook Group located at: http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=8220216143&view=all#/photo_search.php?page=2&oid=8220216143&aid=-1&auser=&view=all

The Facebook Group currently has 1,291 members. I hope you choose to join it.

Enjoy!

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