Last weekend we went to the Picasso Museum in Muenster to see about 100 paintings, sculptures, ceramics and drawings by Joan Miró.
Admittedly, I've never made much of an effort to get into Miró's work. Those colorful and somewhat folkloristic paintings didn't tell me much. After having seen "the real thing" I'm impressed. Some of the paintings are very powerful. Also, the sculptures are marvelous, inventive, fanciful, and sometimes crazy. I liked the sun woman very much.
Miró was influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism. André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, described him as "the most Surrealist of us all." For details see Wikipedia.
I think, the effect of his work lies in what he calls "simplification". He said: "My characters have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified, they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details". Besides, lots of the images in his paintings originated in his dreams. One can get lost looking at those night blue moons and moods and fall into a dreamlike trance...
Two quotes: "I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music".
"Poetry and painting are done in the same way you make love; it's an exchange of blood, a total embrace - without caution, without any thought of protecting yourself".
