Le lézard aux plumes d'or

Spanish painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist, Joan Miró is one of the great representatives of Surrealism. His works have a language that can be described as free and dreamlike. 

Joan Miró was born in Barcelona on 20 April 1893. His father was a jeweller, and he directed his son towards business studies. However, Miró became passionate about art at an early age. In 1907 he enrolled at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts, and in 1911 he continued his training at the Galli Academy.

In 1919, he went to Paris and met some of the greatest artists of the time. He was first influenced by Fauvism, then Cubism, before joining André Breton's surrealist group. In the end, it was Dadaism that touched him most, he showed great imagination, fantasy and humour to give new life to the forms and objects around him.

In 1925, he painted "The Birth of the World" and turned to sculpture and collage with, for example, "The Dancer" from 1928. At that time, he even stated that he wanted to "assassinate painting".

In 1937, the war forced him to leave his native country for France. This conflict had a strong influence on his art, both in tone and form. After the war, he decorated monuments and facades, for example: the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati or the Moon and the Sun on the UNESCO building in Paris.

In 1961, Joan Miró painted the three "Blue": Blue I, Blue II and Blue III.

On 10th June 1975 the Miró Foundation was officially inaugurated. Numerous paintings and sculptures from Miró's surrealist work are still on display there today. Joan Miró died on the 25th of December 1983 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He was 90 years old.