Miró: The Poet Among the Surrealists (Basic Art)

I first encountered Miro's art on a holiday to Barcelona a few years ago.I visited the Joan Miro Foundation in Montjuic and was dazzled by the beauty of the paintings (and sculptures) on display in that impressive building. A print of one of his works adorns one of the walls of my home. I thought I would buy this book to find out more about Miro and have a pictorial record of his works. The book is excellent ; full of beautiful prints of Miro's most famous paintings and the text provides a short biography of the artist and the motivations behind his art. Miro's art still looks ultra modern today. I liked this Taschen Basic Art book and I would recommend it. I intend to buy more of them.

This gives an excellent overview of the work of Joan Miró. Although Miró worked in many media, he is best known for his paintings and this book concentrates on these. I was hoping for more background information, but Miró was a shy, private man. However, there are mentions of his family, his devotion to his native Catalonia and his time in Paris.I have always found it difficult to understand the symbolism in his work. Although very much of the avant-garde of his time he had his own style. The descriptions of his early work are interesting. The style for which he is now familiar began in 1923 and starts to be detailed in the third chapter, “Poetic License”. His work was not abstract, there is always an underlying story, but this is transformed into symbolism. The text seems to think that this symbolism is readable (1). Fortunately for me, the symbolism it is explained for some of the pictures illustrated.THE BOOK is short, at ninety one pages, divided into six chapters. It is highly illustrated and all the illustrations are in colour unless they are from black and white photographs. (2) The front cover is taken from  Blue II , 1961._____________________________________________________________________(1) “Although his work of the thirties was all in all less anecdotal, with a broader, simpler vocabulary of signs, Miró remained obligingly readable. For example,  Painting  of 1933 (ill. Page 56) has made the collaged objects into little creatures that correspond to the original illustrations of tools roughly in shape, but not in meaning.” (“New Constellations”, page 56)(2) THE CHAPTERSJoan Miró – a preface(1 page text, 1 page illustration  Self portrait 1917 “If this is painting, then I am Velázquez..”The chapter’s title is taken from a remark by a fellow painter on seeing an exhibition by Miró and his friends. This chapter describes his early years and work, including his  Portrait of E.C. Ricart , 1917, where, like van Goth and Monet, Miró refers to Japanese art in a background to his modernist portrait.The chapter ends with a full page illustration of  The Table (Still Life with Rabbit) , dated 1920, the year he arrived in Paris. “On the table ornamented in Cubist style lie naturalistically presented animals and objects. Unlike the Cubists, Miró does not incorporate the realistic elements into the geometrical structure of the painting. Thus the unbridgeable gap between the two worlds remains.” (page 24)(18 pages including 4 full page illustrations)A Monk, a Soldier and a PoetAfter considerable preparation, Miró move to Paris in 1920. There he met with Picasso, whose mother he had already met in Barcelona. In 1921 he had his first exhibition in Paris. Nothing sold. His key work,  The Farm , was started in 1921 and completed the following year. This was bought by the writer Ernest Hemingway. It is a painting open to numerous interpretations.(10 pages, including 1 full page illustration  Standing Nude )Poetic LicenceFrom 1923 Miró began to invent a new cosmos of beings and symbols. The imagery of The Farm now becomes  The Tilled Field , and in  Catalan Landscape (The Hunter)  the world of objects has been reduced to a few signs. Only the pipe of the hunter can be recognized, everything else is reduced to a few lines. In  Harlequins Carnival  the surrealist championing of the sub-conscious has begun to influence Miró. Remembered dreams become a source of inspiration.(18 pages)New ConstellationsIn 1932 Miró returned to Barcelona from Paris, mostly for financial reasons. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 he returned to Paris, but returned to Spain in 1940. He developed his constellations in the early 1940s and these became influential after they were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1941.  Constellations, Awakening at Dawn , Ciphers and Constellations, in Love with a Woman (22 pages, including 6 full page illustrations)The Dream of a Large StudioMiró had always wanted to settle down somewhere with a large studio. He fulfilled this ambition with a large studio in Palma de Mallorca, which is now the Miró Museum (Fundació Miró Mallorca).(16 pages, including 4 full page illustrations)Joan Miró 1893 – 1983: Life and WorkThis section itemises events in his life and work by year, formatted into three columns per page.(2 pages)List of PlatesA list of the 91 illustrations in the book, their name, media and location.(2 1/3 pages)Notes60 short notes of sources for references mentioned in the book.(2/3 page)There is no index.

Great book lots of illustrations and a good biography and explanation of his work. If you only buy one book on Joan Miro, this is a great one to have.

A worthy addition to any bookshelf.