In 1919, after having abandoned his academic studies and celebrated his first exhibit in Barcelona, he visits Paris and establishes a friendship with Picasso.  He is fascinated by this first visit to the city of the artists, which after the end of the First World War was once again becoming a very active art center, and he decides to return one year later.  In 1921 he celebrates his first Parisian exhibit and for the rest of the successive year works on one of his masterpieces, "The Farm", about which Ernest Hemingway, who acquired it, said:  "After Miró had painted 'THE FARM' and after James Joyce had written 'ULYSSES' they had a right to expect people to trust the further things they did".  (Derriere le Miroir 14-15, 1948)

At that time the first manifestations of Dadaists were being heard in Paris, and Miró, with his restless and anti-academic spirit, does not take long to participate, forming friendships with the rebels of the moment, poets and artists, promotors of the upcoming Surrealist revolution.  In fact, in 1924 he is one of the signers of the first manifesto of this movement written by André Breton, and one year later participates in the historic first Surrealist exhibition.  Of all the currents then in vogue, there is now no doubt that this one is his. The same Breton a few years later in his "Le Surrealisme et la peinture"

defines (Miró) as the most Surrealist of all.

Although he does not visit the United States until 1947, the year he experiments with the etching in the workshop of Stanley W. Hayter, his paintings had already been exhibited in New York in 1926 where, two years later, he was regaled with a retrospective.  From that moment on his exhibits continue without interruption:  Paris, New York, Brussels, London...;  just as his commissions: murals, theater, illustrations, etc.

In 1940, at the onset of the Second World War, he returns to Spain where he has established residence ever since in Mallorca, without losing touch with Paris, which he visits asiduously.  It is during this time that he rededicates himself, with more enthusiasm than ever, to all the activities of the workshop:  ceramics ( which he will always work in collaboration with Artigas) and the print in all of its forms.

Significant of this period is 1944, the year he produces his famous "Barcelona Series", a suite of 50 lithographs numbered I - L limited to an edition of 5.  Although since the distant 1930, year in which he draws on his first stone, he had already created a few prints, there is no doubt that the "Barcelona Series" is the one that impulses his vast graphic production which today consists of some five hundred works, including a considerable number of illustrations (among the most important : Paul Eluard's "A Toute Epreuve" with eighty color woodcuts and Tristan Tzara's "Parlez Seul"  with sixty two lithographs in color and black).

This amazing graphic production together with his absolute mastery of the techniques used, earned him the the prize for Graphic Arts at the Venice Biennial in 1954.

An unmistakeable personality, Miró occupies an unique and prominent place in contemporary art by having invented for us a fantastic world animated by incredible characters, about whom he speaks to us with an inexhaustible poetic-calligraphic language and the elegance of Oriental filigree.  A world populated by little figures apparently dawn with childlike innocence,  full of implausible suggestions, of stars, suns, larvae, genes, filaments and thousands of other complex and light symbollic signs which, suspended as if by magic in emptiness beautifully lit by the pirotechnics of daring colors, only at times allow us to guess slight references to reality.

Catalogue

All the works described here are original in color** printed on Arches or Rives paper, numbered and signed by the artist.

1. Affiche No. 25                 Lithograph (1959) (Avant lettre)      Ed. 150 

                                               cm.   69   x 52.5

2. Affiche Englebert           Lithograph (1961) (Avant lettre)      Ed. 100 

                                               cm.  76    x 56

*3. Astrologie I                    Lithograph (1953/60)                        Ed. 100 

                                               cm.  40    x 29

*4. Astrologie II                   Lithograph (1953/60)                        Ed. 100 

                                               cm.  40    x 29

*5. Astrologie III                  Lithograph (1953/60)                        Ed. 100 

                                               cm.  40    x 29

6. Ciel Rouge                     Lithograph (1960)                              Ed. 100 

                                              cm.  46    x 66

7. Couverture (Eng. cat.)  Lithograph (1960) (Avant lettre)      Ed. 100 

                                              cm.   38   x 57

8. Danse Nuptiale              Lithograph (1963)                              Ed.   90 

                                               cm.   48   x 65.5

9. Femme-au-Miroir           Lithograph (1957)                              Ed. 150 

                                               cm.   39 x 56.5

10. Femme-Oiseau 2         Etching (1960)                                    Ed.   90 

                                               cm.  34.5x 46.5

11. Giboulees                      Etching (1960)                                    Ed.   90 

                                                cm.  34   x 46

12. Invention du Feu          Lithograph & Etching (1960)             Ed.  90 

                                               cm.  50   x 65

13.Jaune et Vert                 Lithograph (1961)                               Ed.   90 

                                               cm.  46   x 58

14.La Fille du Jardinier     Lithograph (1963)                               Ed.   90 

                                               cm.  44.5x 60

15.L'Anneau                        Lithograph (1961)                               Ed.   90 

                                               cm.   94  x 66.5

16.L'Astre Patagon             Lithograph (1960)                               Ed. 150 

                                               cm.   48.5x 65

17.La Traversee du Miroir Lithograph (1963)                               Ed.   90 

                                                cm.  60   x 90

*18.L'Oiseau Zephyr           Lithograph (1956/60)                         Ed. 100 

                                                cm.  34.5x 53

19.Mural                                Lithograph (1961)                               Ed.   90 

                                                cm.  45.5x 58

20.Nebuleuse                      Lithograph (1958)                               Ed. 100 

                                                cm.  50.5x 66

21.Rouge et Bleu                Lithograph (1960)                               Ed. 100 

                                                cm.  65.5 x46.5

22 -31.Serie I                       Lithograph (1961) Series                             

                                               of 10 states of different colors            Ed.   30 

                                                cm.  66.5 x101

32 -40.Serie II                      Lithograph (1961) Series                             

                                               of 9 states of different colors               Ed.   30 

                                                cm.  45   x 60

41. Soleil et Vent                 Etching (1962)                                      Ed.   75  

                                                cm.  58.5 x33

42. Soleil Noye I                  Etching (1962)                                      Ed.   75  

                                                cm.  22  x 58.5

*43.Terres de Grand Feu   Lithograph (1956/60)                          Ed. 100 

                                                cm.   48  x 65  

44.Tete Etoile                       Lithograph (1961)                                Ed.   90 

                                                cm.    62 x 90

45. Trace Sur L'Eau            Etching (1963)                                      Ed. 100

                                                cm.   22   x 58.5

*Works edited in 1960

**One of these in black and white

Bibliography

1941 - James Johnson Sweeney - Joan Miró - The M. of M. A. of N. Y.

1947 - Michel Leiris - The Prints of Joan Miró - Valentin N.Y.

1948 - Clement Greenberg - Joan Miró - The Quadrangle Press N.Y.

1949 - Raymond Queneau - Joan Miró u le Poete Prehistorique - Skira, Geneve

1957 - Paul Wember - Miro: Das Graphische Werk - Kaiser - Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld

1958 - Sam Hunter - Joan Miró: His Graphic Work - Abrams, N.Y.

1959 - James Thrall Soby - Joan Miró - Museum of Modern Art of N.Y.

1959 - Paul Wember - Joan Miro Farbige Lithgraphien...- Insel, Wiesbaden

1961 - Guy Weelen - Miró (2 Vols.) - Hozan, Paris

1962 - Jacques Dupin - Joan Miró - Life & Work- Abrams, N.Y.

The preceeding list is only a small selection of the most important books published on Joan Miró, his life and his art.