Joan Miró

Joan Miró was a Spanish artist from Catalonia whose playful, dreamlike work is among the most joyful in modern art. Born in Barcelona in 1893, he became loosely tied to the Surrealists, developing a personal language of floating shapes, squiggly lines, stars, and biomorphic blobs in bright primary colors. He described wanting to assassinate traditional painting and start fresh with something freer.

His images can look childlike and spontaneous, but they were carefully composed, drawing on dreams, Catalan folk culture, and his love of the land. He worked in painting, sculpture, ceramics, and huge public murals over a very long career. Miró's cheerful, inventive shapes have become instantly recognizable and continue to delight viewers of all ages.