Joan Miro Art Project

Joan Miro

1893-1983

Introduction

Joan Miro was born in 1893 and died in 1983.

He was a Spanish painter and sculptor.

He became a world famous Surrealist painter.

In this project I will tell you about Joan Miro’s life and you will see my copies of some of his paintings.  

I will explain what Surrealism is.

I will tell you why I chose Miro as my artist, where I went to find out about him and what I have learned.

You will find out what the Curator of the Tate Modern gallery thinks about Miro too in my interview with her!

Why I chose Miro for my Art Project

First of all I looked on Google Images at the list of Artists names on the project sheet to get some ideas.

I wanted to choose an artist whose work I liked and would be able to copy.

Some of the artists I liked but thought they were too difficult to copy e.g. De Vinci, and Rembrandt.

I liked the art of Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Miro as it is colourful and unusual and I thought I would be able to copy it quite well.  I also liked Van Gogh.

Once I had narrowed it down to 5 artists, I went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery and the Royal Academy of Art in London in the Easter holidays.  I looked at the work of the 6 artists before choosing.  

In the end I chose Miro because I thought his work changed a lot over his life.  It was the most colourful and interesting and it caught my eye the most.

Surrealism

Surrealist paintings are based on dreams.  

These paintings are filled with normal objects that are painted to look strange.  

The artists hope their paintings will make people look at things in a different way.

Miro is known as a Surrealist painter but he didn’t like to be known as that.  

He wanted to be free to paint in other styles as well.

Another famous surrealist artist is Salvador Dali.

Here are some photo’s of Miro’s early surrealist paintings that I saw at the Tate Modern.

Below is a copy of one that I did in charcoal and acrylic.  It is called Composition.

The Seated Woman 1931

Below is my copy of the The Seated Woman.  

Miro painted this in oil but I did it in Watercolour.

It is difficult to get the colours really bright when you are painting in watercolour so I needed two goes to get this right.

Rotate the page to see this picture the right way up.  The red stripe goes down the left hand side.

Miro’s later life

Early Life of Joan Miro

Joan Miro was born in 1893 in Barcelona, Spain.  He was the son of a goldsmith and watchmaker.  

He began drawing as a young boy and learned about the legends of Catalonia.

After he left school Miro spent 3 years in business school.  He got a job as an accounting clerk which his parents chose for him.  

He was overworked and became seriously ill.  He nearly had a nervous breakdown and got typhoid.  

Because his health was not very good his parents took him away to their farm and allowed him to do what he wanted so he went to Art School which he loved.

His favourite artists at that time were Cezanne and Van Gogh.

Until the age of 30 he mainly painted still-lifes, nudes, portraits and landscapes.  

North South 1917

Below is my copy of Miro’s North South picture which he painted in 1917 when he was 24.  

It is a still life.  

The book on the table is about Surrealism so it shows he was beginning to get interested in that kind of art.

Miro painted his in oils but I did mine in Oil Pastels which are like wax crayons.

If you rub the oil pastels with your finger you can make the edges look really soft.  

I really like this picture as it is so colourful.

Miro’s Middle Years

Miro went to France in 1919 when he was 26.  When he was there he met Picasso, Matisse and Dali.

All of these artists painting in new and unusual ways.

There was a big change in his art from 1923 when he painted about 100 paintings from his dreams.

This was his most surrealist period.

When he was 36 he went through a difficult time when he questioned his art and was struggling for money.

He began experimenting with different materials, doing collages using nails and string.

He began painting more Abstract art but he did not like his work being described as Abstract, which he thought was an insult.

Portrait of a Young Girl 1935

This is Miro’s Portrait of a Young Girl.

Miro painted this using oil and sand but I used acrylic paints.

It is a picture of young girl but Miro has turned it into just a few shapes.

The girl seems to be wearing a big feathered hat.  Her eyelashes are long.

Miro’s later years

After World War 2 Miro’s work became more and more Astract.  

He was now getting known around the world and he moved from Spain to New York to Paris.

Miro’s art began influencing other young artists like Arshile Gorky.  I saw Gorky’s exhibition at the Tate Modern.