Fundacio Joan Miro - The exhibits, 1

Fundacio Joan Miro - The exhibits, 1

We really enjoyed the time we spent in this wonderful museum. Even though it's a museum dedicated to the work of Joan Miro, there are a lot of other works by different artists whose work had similarities with Miro's. An interesting way of presenting art, and one that I enjoyed enormously as it gave me an opportunity to find out about artists I did not know, or to see, once again, paintings I love.

Joan Miro i Ferra, 1893-1983, a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist. His work has been interpreted as Surrealism but with a personal style, sometimes also veering into Fauvism and Expressionism. He was interested in the subconscious mind, reflected in his re-creation of the childlike. His difficult-to-classify works also had a manifestation of Catalan pride.  In numerous interviews Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society. He declared an 'assassination of painting' in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

He combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. He worked extensively in lithography and produced numerous murals, tapestries and sculptures for public spaces.

Though often referred to as a Surrealist, Miro considered his art to be free of any 'ism'. He experimented throughout his career with different media - painting, pastel, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, collage, muralism and tapestry - and unconventional materials as a way of making work that expressed the contemporary moment without relying on realism.

Joan Miro, The Somersault

Joan Miro, Painting

Alice Trumbull Mason, Brown Shapes White

Joan Miro, Figure Throwing a Stone to a Bird

Perle Fine, Ppolyphonic

Joan Miro, Painting

Joan Miro, Painting

Joan Miro, Gouache

Alexander Calder, The Corcovado, 1951, (aluminium)

Miro and Calder were great friends, and there is a lot of Calder's work in the museum.

Joan Miro, Message from a friend, 1964

Joan Miro, Mural, 1951, (oil on canvas)

Alexander Calder, Untitled, 1941

Alexander Calder, Portrait of Joan Miro, 1930

The reflection of Miro's face kept changing with subtle changes in the atmosphere in the gallery

Alexander Calder, Black Polygons, 1947

Fundacio Joan Miro

Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona.

A very impressive building, situated on the Montjuic hill, the work of architect Josep Lluis Sert, Corbusier's student and a key example of rationalist architecture.  The clear and cubistic shapes are all in white, making the museum building look light and flowing and make the rooms look larger. The offset arrangement of the inner rooms, interfused by bright patios and terraces create dynamic, transparency and a lot of natural light in the inside of the building. For Sert the core eloements were flexibility and movement, without losing spatial continuity. As a result, the visitors are given the opportunity to experience the artwork in diffrerent ways, depending on which room they are approaching the objects from.

Personage by Joan Miro by the main entrance.

Miro's sculptures are to be found all over the building, in the many courtyards, the roof, the terraces

One of the terraces, on the first floor

Joan Miro, Lluna, Sol I una Estrella

and the city spread out in front of us

Inside, the museum is built on different levels.

Halfway through looking at the exhibits we were able to access the roof via double glass doors

looking down at the courtyard where the chair which we had looked at earlier is situated

fantastic views of the city

zooming in - I never found out what this is on top of the hill

The roof is as complex as the building and from here we could see more of the structure 

Lots of Miro's sculptures here, all of them brightly coloured and fun

looking closer

The whole structure of the building is quite amazing

looking at the sculpture from the side you can see part of it is a stool

looking down at the inner courtyard

which we eventually went down to as this is where the cafe is situated.  The inner courtyard which is in the middle of the building, and which all the rooms are centrifugically arranged to, is a typical Catalan feature and is also found in all of the Gaudi buildings I have visited.

More Miro sculptures here

And a chance to see more of the conplex structure of this building. 

We had a hot drink and a rest here and then moved on to explore the grounds.

There is a quiet, peaceful garden on the side of the building. 

I now am not sure whether it's the building's garden, or an adjoining small park, one of many that are situated on Montjuic.

Lots of sculptures around

After wandering around for a while

we left and started walking down the hill towards the Museum of Catalan Art and then the Mies Van der Rohe pavillion which you can see here