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Adrien Maeght, (right) President of the Fondation Maeght, St Paul-de-Vence which loaned the works for the exhibition and Jean-Louis Prat, Director of the foundation and Curator of the current exhibition, here pictured at the opening night in Florence. Also speaking at the opening was Joan Miró's grandson.

Joan Miró (Barcelona 1893 -  Palma de Mallorca 1983) 

The exhibition presents more than one hundred works by the artist ranging from large powerful drawings and his colourful lyrical canvas paintings to a massive weaving and a large group of bronze and mixed media sculptures. Instead of long biographical notes the text boards in each room reproduce quotes from the artist expressing his philosophy of art.   It is a beautifully lit exhibition that offers a wide selection of works that come from the artist's most brilliant period of activity (1960 -1980). The sculpture dominates and is far more interesting to look at than the paintings.  Miró was a master of recycling 'objets trouvés'.  A farmyard milking stool is painted black and upended to become the torso of a figure with bronze brightly painted limbs. The vocabulary is wholly Spanish as he incorporates the form of the bull horn in countless works ('Bull's Head', 1970 etc.) and utensils lifted straight from a peasant's kitchen.  Miró also borrowed forms directly from nature, taking a turtle's shell and exposing the ribbed interior in one sculpture, he later made a bronze mold for a work where the entire shell becomes the body of a surrealistic alien creature. For another piece Miró took a simple gourd and painted it car metal red hence effecting the metamorphosis of a timeless natural form into one that evokes twentieth century industrial technology.
Endlessly inventive and aware of the spiritual power primitive totemic images can radiate Miró studied the art of ancient cultures and adapted them to speak to his contemporaries. Even more than Picasso in the 1960's, Miró was interested in simplifying forms and imbuing them with a eloquently naive personality. 

bronze sculpture by Miró a peasant's woven straw basket becomes the textured head of a mythical beast

bronze sculpture by Miró that reflects his study of primitive cultures

This exhibition is light, colourful and uplifting. It is one of those rare art shows that children should be taken to and which they actually might enjoy. This is not to suggest that Miró is unsophisticated or fails to be intellectually stimulating. On the contrary, it points to his unerring genius at cutting across intellectual parameters to establish an immediate and lasting impression upon our senses. 
 

Review and Photographs by Rachel Le Goff
 

JOAN MIRO FOUNDATION