The exhibition, which is co-organised by Tate Modern and the Fundació Joan Miró, brings together more than 150 paintings, works on paper and sculptures by one of the key artists of the 20th century.
The show comprises works from collections from around the world in order to provide a complete overview of Miró’s impressive output as well as to analyse the backdrop against which Miró produced his work. At the same time, it underlines his political engagement and the influence of his Catalan roots, the Spanish Civil War and beginning and end of the Franco regime.
The exhibition looks at the artist's varying degrees of engagement during his lifetime, with its different emotional and artistic shifts. The opening section shows a Miró concerned with aspects of Catalan identity, with works depicting landscapes and traditions, which include images from rural life, ranging from The Farm (1921-1922), once owned by his friend Ernest Hemingway, to the masterly sequence Head of a Catalan Peasant (1924-1925). The exhibition also highlights the tensions Miró experienced with the outbreak of the Civil War, which led him to protest vehemently in paintings such as Aidez l’Espagne and The Reaper (Catalan Peasant in Revolt), dating from 1937, as well as more private and troubling responses with the famous Constellation paintings (1940 and 1941), when the world was at war. The retrospective, which comes to Barcelona from London, showcases key works including the superb triptych The Hope of a Condemned Man (1973). The exhibition also reveals how Miró captured the atmosphere of protest in the late 1960s by blackening or setting fire to his works, such as May 1968 (1968-1973) and Burnt Canvas II (1973). The radical and pioneering nature of his ladder of escape is also shown in euphoric explosions of paint, such as the triptych Fireworks (1974). The Fundació Joan Miró is providing a unique opportunity to discover the artist’s works and to come into contact with his most personal and engaged universe. With countless pieces that are symbols of their age, drawn from several collections, Miró is revealed to us as a constantly evolving genius.