Miró paintings on display “Joan Miró - materiality and metamorphosis”At the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon. We went to see Miró's works at this Joan Miró Exhibition. Until January 8, 2018.
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We had already seen the exhibition in Serralves in Porto, but this was the opportunity not only to see all 85 paintings by Miró, from the collection belonging to the former Banco BPN, but also to revisit the National Palace of Ajuda.
But who was Joan Miró?
Born in Barcelona in 1893, he was in Paris and always spent his holidays in Montroig, near Barcelona, where his parents had a farm. In 1956 he moved to his mother's land, Palma de Mallorca, where he died in 1983.
This Joan Miró exhibition has works of painting, drawing, sculpture, collage and tapestry (“sobreteixims”) that Miró held between 1972 and 1973.
In the exhibition, there are hanging tapestries and nettles whose support is made of burlap sacks, used to transport flour and found by Miró in an old factory, where he produced many of these works.
Joan Miró explores the versatility of visual signs, such as birds, women, stars, the moon, the sun and the constellations and uses very vivid colors, such as blue, yellow, red, white and black.
Right at the entrance, from Miró's works, we found a woman with a bird.
And further on, this one.
Birds fly, maybe they will land on your shoulder.
We like these abstract paintings and the symbols that Miró created in his works.
We look at Miró's paintings and their colors, the flowing lines, the stars, the moon and all the symbolism he created, making us dream and rekindle feelings and emotions within us.
Like the bird, Joan Miró looked at the sky, saw the stars and gave them a configuration either with 5 points or even with 3 lines.
The moon also appears in its signs.
The sun, in this symbology,
can appear as a
red or black circle
The constellations in the sky are black circles and lines.
In Miró's works, we also see birds flying. They are black lines ending with an arrow.
Joan Miró has always rejected the idea of painting something abstract, since for him abstraction is like a “deserted house”. He was on the verge of abstraction, but he always refused to align him among abstract painters.
One of Miró's paintings not to be missed is also “A Fornarina”, painted in 1939 and which Miró took as a model, a portrait of the Renaissance Master Rafael Sanzio.
Of Miró's paintings, this one was evaluated by Christie´s in London, for about 3 million euros.
Let us put Rafael's picture and the picture of one of Miró's works side by side, for comparison.
The woman's body in Miró's painting is represented by the black triangle (one of her symbols) and gives a great preponderance to Fornarina's breasts and eyes, supposedly Rafael's great love.
A quick visit to the exhibition of Miró's works, in this short video
Miró's paintings that are part of this exhibition were to be auctioned in London for around 35 million euros to minimize the loss we had with the BPN's collapse, but the Government decided to prevent this sale and deliver the collection to the Porto City Council.
If you want to obtain the exhibition catalog just download the document.
Joan Miró Exhibition Catalog
Send the download link to:
And if you want to know more about Miró's works, we recommend this book:
Joan Miró exhibition, don't miss it!
Wherever the exhibition is located, do not miss the possibility to see the 85 works by Joan Miró.
For me, the strong colors and lines defined in very minimalist interpretations are Miró's strengths. Watercolors and other techniques blur these aspects. I particularly like the strength of the colors used.
Although I may like it, I don't think we need to own these works to appreciate them, and except for some economic criteria that justify it, I don't know if we should ignore certain opportunities.
Strong colors are also my preference. They go deep into our unconscious.