Joan Miró (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983)

Bookmark and Share
                                                                                                     
Standing Nude
1918

Miró is the best known Surrealist after Dalí (interestingly both were Catalan), though some supposed him to be the best. Personally, his most famous periods, which tended towards Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, are not as interesting to me as his earlier ones. The piece above, which is Fauvist, is absolutely my favorite on this post; I should come clean that I love Fauvism in general, so it tilts my objectivity. As for his Surrealism, I've never heard a better explanation than his; "The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun. There, in my pictures, tiny forms in huge empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains – everything which is bare has always greatly impressed me."

The Tilled Field
1923-1924

Dancer Listening to the Organ Playing in a Gothic Cathedral
1945

The Lane

Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement
1936

Danger
1925

Self-Portrait
1919