Founded in 1975 by Joan Miró himself, who wanted it to be a contemporary arts centre, this is now a superb tribute to a man whose legacy as an artist and a Catalan is visible across the city. The museum holds more than 14,000 of his paintings, sketches and sculptures, tracing Miró’s evolution from an innovative Surrealist in the 1920s to one of the world’s most challenging modern artists in the 1960s.
Av Miramar, Parc de Montjuïc • 93 443 94 70 • www.fmirobcn.org • Open 10am–6pm Tue–Sat (to 8pm Apr–Oct), to 9pm Thu, 8pm Sat, 3pm Sun • Adm €12, concessions €7; Espai 13 €2.50; multimedia guide €5; temporary exhibitions €7
This extension houses 25 paintings on long-term loan from the private collections of members of the Miró family and from Gallery K, founded by Japanese collector Kazumasa Katsuta.
This immense, richly coloured tapestry represents the culmination of Miró’s work with textiles, which began during the 1970s. The work framed the characteristic colour palette of Miró's output.
The figurative painting Catalan Peasant by Moonlight dates from the late 1960s and highlights two of Miró’s favourite themes: the earth and the night. The figure of the peasant, a very simple collage of colour, is barely decipherable, as the crescent moon merges with his sickle and the night sky takes on the rich green tones of the earth.
This is one of 23 paintings known as the Constellation Series. The Morning Star’s introspective quality reflects Miró’s state of mind at the outbreak of World War II, when he was hiding in Normandy. Spindly shapes of birds, women, heavenly bodies, lines and planes of colour are suspended in an undefined space.
Tortured and misshapen semi-abstract figures try to embrace against a black sky. Miró’s pessimism at the time of Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement would soon be confirmed by the outbreak of the Civil War.
Alexander Calder donated the Mercury Fountain to the Fundació as a mark of his friendship with Miró. The work was an anti-fascist tribute, conceived in memory of the attack on the town of Almadén.
This space showcases the experimental work of new artists from around the world. The exhibitions, based on a single theme each year, are usually radical and often use new technologies.
The Fundació holds the only complete set of prints of this series of 50 black-and-white lithographs. This important collection is only occasionally on display.
Over the years, a number of temporary exhibitions, which are usually held in the Fundació’s west wing, have included retrospectives of high-profile artists such as Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, René Magritte and Fernand Léger.
More of Miró’s sculptures are randomly scattered on a spacious terrace, from which you can appreciate the Rationalist architecture of Josep Lluís Sert’s geometric building. The 3-m (10-ft) tall Caress of a Bird (1967) dominates the terrace.
This room focuses on Miró’s sculptures from the 1940s to the 1950s, when he experimented with ceramic, bronze and, later, painted media and found objects. Notable works include Sun Bird and Moon Bird (both 1946–9).
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