Joan Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893 and lived until 1983, so he witnessed and was influenced by all the chaos of the twentieth century. He was friends with the poet Garcia Lorca who was killed by Franco during Spain's fascist period. During the dictator's reign, it was a capital offense to speak the native Catalan language. Miró spent the Franco years in France.
During the final years of Miró's life, and with the encouragement of his Majorcan wife Pilar Juncosa, he built Fundació Joan Miró on Montjuic, not far from Franco's execution grounds. This is one of the loveliest and most entertaining museums I have ever visited. It was easy to spend an entire day there.
I was not particularly a Miró fan before visiting the Fundació, but I certainly left there a committed one. His work is colorful, playful and seems to be very appealing to children.
The architecture of the museum is modern, in the best sense of the word. It is expansive and clean. There is a lovely garden with panoramic views of Barcelona, a gift shop, book store, café and restaurant. There are lots of places to sit down and many rooms to visit. The collection is impressive. Like Picasso, Miró was extremely prolific and lived a long life, working until the end.
He did large colorful paintings and charming fanciful sculptures.
The museum also had a fun temporary exposition while we were there. Each artist had an entire wall to decorate. They were mostly fresh and fun. They seemed exuberant, which is how the entire museum space feels.
My next post will recommend some restaurants in Barcelona.
Modern art is not really my thing, however I must admit those colors make me smile ;-)
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