Joan Miró Ferra was born on April 20, 1893, in Barcelona. At the age of 14, he went to business school in Barcelona and also attended La Lonja, the academy of fine arts, the same city. Upon completing three years of art studies, he took a position as a clerk. After suffering a nervous breakdown, he abandoned business and resumed his art studies, attending Francesc Galí’s Escola d’Art in Barcelona from 1912 to 1915. In 1917, he met Francis Picabia and the following year, the dealer José Dalmau gave him his first solo show at his gallery in Barcelona.
n 1920, Miró made his first trip to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso. From this time, Miró divided his time between Paris and Montroig, Spain. In Paris, he associated with the poets Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, and Tristan Tzara and participated in Dada activities. Dalmau organized Miró’s first solo show in Paris, at the Galerie La Licorne in 1921. His work was included in the Salon d’Automne of 1923. In 1924, Miró joined the Surrealist group. His solo show at the Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1925 was a major Surrealist event; Miró was included in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre that same year. He visited the Netherlands in 1928 and began a series of paintings inspired by Dutch masters. That year he also executed his first papiers collés and collages. In 1929, he started his experiments in lithography, and his first etchings date from 1933. During the early 1930s, he made Surrealist sculptures incorporating painted stones and found objects. In 1936, Miró left Spain because of the civil war; he returned in 1941.
Miró’s first major museum retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1941. That year, Miró began working in ceramics with Josep Lloréns y Artigas and started to concentrate on prints; from 1954 to 1958, he worked almost exclusively in these two mediums. In 1958, Miró was given a Guggenheim International Award for his murals for the UNESCO building in Paris. The following year, he resumed painting, initiating a series of mural-sized canvases. During the 1960s, he began to work intensively in sculpture. Miró retrospective took place at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1974. In 1978, the Musée National d’Art Moderne exhibited over 500 works in a major retrospective of his drawings. Miró died on December 25, 1983, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Biography from Guggenheim Museums
Note: All works © 2025 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
This is part 10 of a 13-part series on the works of Joan Miró:
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| 1966 The Song of the Vowels oil on canvas 366 x 114.8 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1966 The First Spark of Day II acrylic and oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1966 Music of the twilight V oil on canvas 19 x 33 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1966 Moonbird bronze 90 x 78 x 57 cm MoMA New York |
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| 1967 Women and birds in the night oil and acrylic on canvas 210 x 175 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1967 The wind clock bronze 50.5 x 30.2 x 16.3 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1967 The gold of the azure acrylic on canvas 205 x 173 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1967 The caress of a bird painted bronze 311 x 110 x 48 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1967 Solar Bird, Lunar Bird, Sparks lithograph on ivory wove paper 37.8 x 80 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1967 Painting III acrylic on canvas 65 x 54 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1967 Equinox etching, aquatint, and cardboard 104.3 x 73.8 cm |
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| 1968 Letters and numbers attracted by a spark acrylic on canvas 146 x 114 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Letters and numbers attracted by a spark acrylic on canvas 146 x 114 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
1968 Hommage à Roger Lacourière
An illustrated book with twelve etchings (two with aquatint, two with drypoint, one with aquatint and drypoint) and one drypoint. Various artists with André Beaudin, Camille Bryen, André Derain, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Alberto Magnelli, Louis Marcoussis. André Masson, Joan Miró, Jules Pascin, Pablo Picasso, Léopold Survage:
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| 1968 Hommage à Roger Lacourière, Folio 36 etching, aquatint, and drypoint 19.9 x 22.6 cm (plate) |
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| 1968 Flight of the dragonfly in front of the Sun oil on canvas 173.9 x 243.8 cm © 1998 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington |
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| 1968 Figure in front of the sun acrylic on canvas 174 x 260 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Catalan peasant in the moonlight acrylic on canvas 162 x 130 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Bird in the night oil and graphite pencil on canvas 41 x 24 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Towards the left etching, aquatint and carborundum 62.4 x 101.3 cm |
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| 1968 Towards infinity oil on canvas 41 x 24 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 The navigator's hope I oil on canvas 24 x 41 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Study for a monument offered to the City of Barcelona (Moon, Sun, and One Star) bronze and painted cement 364 x 104 x 97 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Solar bird Carrara marble 163 x 146 x 240 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Poem (III) acrylic on canvas 205 x 174 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Woman encircled by a flight of birds in the night acrylic on tarpaulin (used for the grape harvest) 336. x 336 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Woman and birds in the night acrylic on canvas 130 x 97 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Woman and birds acrylic & oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968 Woman and birds acrylic & oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1968-73 (Title: May 1968) acrylic and oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 The bird nests in bloom fingers bronze 80.5 x 45 x 27.5 cm Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Manoletina aquatint and carborundum 69.5 x 104 cm (sheet) |
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| 1969 For Pasadena lithograph 75 x 56.3 cm (sheet) |
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| 1969 Figure oil on cardboard 22 x 35 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Design for a poster for the exhibition Joan Miró, Engravings and Lithographs lithograph 77 x 55.2 cm (composition) |
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| 1969 Woman acrylic and oil on canvas 61 x 50 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Woman & bird acrylic and oil on canvas 61 x 60 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 The Playful Ogre etching, aquatint and carborundum 73.5 x 106.5 cm (plate) |
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| 1969 The Great Thinker aquatint, etching, drypoint and carborundum 106 x 68 cm (sheet) |
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| 1969 The Fire-eating Bird lithograph 55.3 x 76.5 cm (composition) |
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| 1969 Woman and bird I oil on canvas 46 x 27 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Woman and child acrylic and oil on canvas 61 x 50 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Women and birds II oil on canvas 50 x 61 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1969 Women and birds III oil on canvas 46 x 65 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1970 Animated landscape acrylic and oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1970 Woman in the night acrylic and oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
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| 1970-74 Woman and birds in a landscape acrylic on canvas 244 x 174 cm Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain |
