Joan Miró Ferra was born on April 20, 1893 in Barcelona, into the family of a goldsmith and watchmaker. Miró started drawing classes at the age of seven, but later yielding to his parents’ insistence to receive a decent profession took business classes and became a book-keeper. Simultaneously, in 1907-10 Joan Miró studied art in the academy La Escuela de la Lonja in Barcelona in the class of the landscapist Modesto Urgell Inglada and professor of decorative and applied arts José Pasco Merisa. In 1912-15, he studied in the private academy of Francese D’A. Galí Fabra. In 1918, together with some like-minded friends Miró founded “Agrupació Courbet”, a group of young artists who opposed themselves to conservative traditions in Catalan art. In his works of 1913-17 the most important are the influences of Cézanne and the Fauvists: objects are close to each other and shine with bright and broken colors; striped patterns make up a kind of decorative ornament...
c. 1912-14. Oil on canvas. 65 x 50 cm. Private collection.
1916. Oil on cardboard. 77 x 74 cm. Private collection.
1917. Oil on canvas. 65 x 72.5 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA.
1917. Oil on canvas. 60 x 73 cm. Private collection.
1917. Oil on canvas. 62 x 70 cm. Private collection.
1917. Oil and color print on canvas. 81 x 65 cm. Private collection.
1917. Oil on canvas. 104 x 113 cm. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany.
1917. Oil on canvas. 61 x 50. Private collection.
1918. Oil on canvas. 70 x 62 cm. Private collection.
1918. Oil on canvas. 64 x 70 cm. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
1918. Oil on canvas. 75 x 75 cm. Private collection.
1919. Oil on canvas. 75 x 60 cm. Musée Picasso, Paris, France.
1919. Oil on canvas. 112 x 102 cm. Private collection.
1920. Oil on canvas. 130 x 110 cm. Private collection.
1921. Oil on canvas. 130 x 96 cm. Perls Galleries. New York, NY, USA.
1921-22. Oil on canvas. 132 x 147 cm. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA.
1922-23. Oil on canvas. 38 x 45.7 cm. The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, NY, USA.
1922-23. Oil on canvas. 81 x 65 cm. Private collection.
1922-23. Oil on canvas. 37.8 x 46 cm. The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, NY, USA.
1923-24. Oil on canvas. 66 x 92.7 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA.
Miró. By R. Penrose. London. 1970.
Joan Miró. Selected Writings and Interviews. Ed. By M. Rowell. London 1987
Joan Miró. By Rosa Maria Malet. Rizzoli. 1993.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Joan Miro: 1893-1983 (Basic Art) by Janis Mink. TASCHEN America Llc, 2000.
Miro (Big Art Series) by Walter Erben. TASCHEN America Llc, 1998.
The Kidnapping of the Painter Miro by Paul Hartal. Elore Publications, 1997.
Encounters With Great Painters: The Artists, Bacon, Balthus, Braque, Chagall, Dali, Delvaux, Leger, Matisse, Miro, Picasso, Van Dongen by Claude Azoulay (Editor), Molly Stevens (Translator), Anthony Roberts (Translator), Roger Therond (Compiler), Roger Theron (Editor). Harry N Abrams, 2001.
Joan Miro: Selected Writings and Interviews by Joan Miro, Powell Margit (Editor), Margit Rowell, Paul Auster (Translator). DaCapo Press, 1992.
Joan Miro Foundation Guidebook by Joan Miro (Editor), Rosa Maria Malet (Editor), Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain. Skira, 1999.
Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró by Joseph J. Schildkraut (Editor), Aurora Otero (Editor). John Wiley & Son Ltd, 1996.
Matisse, Picasso, Miro--as I Knew Them by Rosamond Bernier. Knopf, 1991.