Joan Miro Foundation Guidebook

by Rosa Maria Malet (Contributor), Joan Miró (Artist)

Following the wishes of the Catalan artist himself, the aim of the Joan Miro Foundation of Barcelona is to spread knowledge of contemporary art, presents the most important corpus of works by Joan Miro, including over ten thousand pieces, featuring paintings, sculpture, textiles, the entire graphic work, drawings, sketches and notes that exhaustively document the evolution of the great masters's pictorial language. Besides works by Miro, the Foundation also features an interesting collection of contemporary art, with works by Balthus, Duchamp, Ernst, Gonzales, Matisse, Moore, Tanguy and Rauschenberg. The richly illustrated book edited by Rosa Maria Malet is a useful guide to the Joan Miro Foundation, documenting the history of the institution and the building as well as the important periods of the Catalan artist's career, covering the early works, the Parisian period and the works of his later years.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Barb Innes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visited in Barcelona in September, 2017 and bought this book there! Gave me more information of his long career with beautiful photos of his work!

[T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was lovely to learn how the Miró Foundation was created, and also read about the stories behind the people who made it possible. I somehow feel grateful to the people who have shared/donated works from their own personal collection, including Miró himself. I have no idea if I will ever get to visit Mallorca, Spain in my lifetime, so going through this whole book was like taking a trip these past few days, looking at art, savoring the moment, thinking, reflecting.

I was completely fascinated with Miró's Tapestry of the Foundation, 1979. To be able to do something that immense is just incredible. I also love his ceramic paving in the Pia de l'Os, 1976. That one was just so beautiful. I wonder if we can have something like that here in Manila, along the park or university grounds, but I also wonder if people will appreciate it.

Anyway, one work that I have yet to understand is The hope of the man condemned to death I, II, III, 1974. It's beautiful yet there is a sense of bleakness and truth here that weighs heavy in my heart. I think to see this triptych in real life would just blow me away. The paintings were said to be meditations on the execution of an anarchist, Salvador Puig Antich.

Finally, I loved the full spread photo of Miró working in his studio (114-115). His studio was huge, scattered with his works at all corners. It felt like Miró was immortalized in this moment, and I feel a sense of privilege having been able to see this.

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise, easy to read overview of Miro's work, and his process, with plenty of good quality images - as a light entry point into his work, can't be faulted.