The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; English: Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art) is a

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

museum honoring the life and work of the Spanish artist

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

, located on the hill called

Montjuïc Montjuïc () is a hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Montjuïc or Montjuich, meaning "Jewish Mountain" in medieval Latin and Catalan, is a broad, shallow hill in Barcelona with a rich history. It was the birthplace of the city, and its st ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

(

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

History

The idea for the foundation was made in 1968 by Joan Miró. Miró formed the foundation with his friend Joan Prats. Miró wanted to create a new building that would encourage particularly younger artists to experiment with contemporary art. The building was designed by

Josep Lluís Sert Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Catalan architect and city planner established in the USA after 1939. Biography Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painte ...

to ensure that this work could also be made available to the public and exhibited. He designed the building with courtyards and terraces and to create a natural path for visitors to move through the building. Building began on the mountain of

and the foundation opened on 10 June 1975. Not only was the architect a close friend of Miró but so was the first president Joaquim Gomis and Miró was amongst the first board. It was claimed that the new foundation represented a new way of viewing the concept of a museum and how the people of Barcelona could relate to their cultural heritage. Expansion in 1986 to the building added an auditorium and a library which holds some of the 10,000 items in the Foundation and Miró's collection.

Works by Joan Miró

Many of the works in the building were donated by the artist himself.Fundació Joan Miró
Barcelona.de, accessed September 2011 Highlights include: *''The wing of the lark ...'', 1967 *''Hermitage of San Juan Huerta'', 1917 *''Street Pedralbes'', 1917 *''Portrait of a boy'', 1919 *''Painting (the white gloves)'', 1925 *''Flame in space and Naked woman'', 1932 *''Character'', 1934 *'' Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement'', 1935 *'' Naked Woman Climbing a Staircase'', 1937 *''No'', 1937 *''The Morning Star'', 1940 *'' Barcelona Series'', 1944 *''The Diamond smiles at twilight'', 1947–1948 *'' The Caress of a Bird'', 1967 *''The gold of the azure'', 1967 *''Painting on white to a solitary cell I, II, III'', 1968 *''Figure in front of the sun'', 1968 *''Catalan peasant by moonlight'', 1968 *''

Miró's Chicago ''Miró's Chicago'' (originally called ''The Sun, the Moon and One Star'') is a sculpture by Joan Miró in Brunswick Plaza, Chicago, United States. It is tall, and is made of steel, wire mesh, concrete, bronze, and ceramic tile. History In ...

'', 1968 *''Character'', 1970, May 1968, 1968–1973 *'' Tapestry of the Fundació'', 1979

Collection

In line with Miró's original idea the Foundation has a space named "" which is dedicated to promoting the work of young experimental artists. Many curators have been in charge of that program, including Frederic Montornes, Monica Regàs, and Ferran Barenblit, who was later Director of MACBA. Although there is also work by

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a British film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Mannerist painting in particular. Common traits in his films a ...

, Chillida,

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

, Rothko, Tàpies and Saura. The collection includes

Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

's ''4 Wings'' and ''

Mercury Fountain A mercury fountain is a fountain constructed for use with liquid metallic mercury ("quicksilver") rather than water. Mercury fountains existed in some castles in Islamic Spain; the most famous one was located at the Kasr-al-Kholaifa in Córd ...

''. The ''Mercury Fountain'' uses the liquid metal mercury to create a fountain. As mercury is poisonous, the fountain is kept behind glass to protect the visitors. The museum uses QRpedia to allow visitors to read Wikipedia articles about objects in the collection, translated into their preferred language.

Joan Miró Prize

Since 2007, the Fundació Joan Miró – initially with support from Fundació Caixa Girona, later Stavros Niarchos Foundation – have been jointly bestowing the Joan Miró Prize with a total volume of 70,000 euros to a contemporary artist every other year. Previous recipients have included: * 2007:

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson (; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. In 1995, ...

* 2009: Pipilotti Rist * 2011:

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum (; born 1952) is a Palestinians, British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to State of Palestine, Palestinian parents. Although born in Leba ...

* 2013: Roni Horn * 2015: Ignasi Aballí * 2017: Kader Attia * 2019:

Nalini Malani Nalini Malani (born 19 February 1946) is an Indian artist, among the country's first generation of video artists. She works with several mediums which include theater, videos, installations along with mixed media paintings and drawings. The su ...

* 2023: Tuan Andrew NguyenArtreview.com (01 June 2023)
Tuan Andrew Nguyen wins €50,000 Joan Miró Prize prize
' artreview''.

References

External links