" I am naturally taciturn and tragic, " said Joan Miró (1893-1983) in 1959 himself, and that was undoubtedly true since everyone who knew him spoke of his legendary silences. To talk about his life, we must, therefore, take the path of his works.
In Catalonia, where this son of a goldsmith, grandson of a cabinetmaker, born April 1893, was raised in the discipline of artisans. He was born in Barcelona, but the world imposed on him in the countryside of Cornudella and Mallorca, where his mother is from, then in Mont-Roig on his parent's farm, from 1911. The rest of Spain ? A foreign country which he visits " as if he were traveling in Holland ". In this land of Mont-Roig, on the other hand, it has its roots, and it feels " like a plant ". " It's the earth, the earth. Something stronger than me. The fantastic mountains play a role in my life and the sky too. Not in the sense of German romanticism, it is the shock of these forms on my mind, more than the vision. Mont-Roig is the preliminary, primitive shock, where I always come back. Elsewhere, everything is measured in relation to Mont-Roig. From the start, here are the birds, the red earth, the trees, even the insects, which we will find throughout his work. The Catalan countryside is like " a plant that would have grown on him ". On the academic training side, things are not so simple. Although enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Llotja (the same school attended by a certain Pablo Picasso twelve years earlier), Joan had to face his father's " absolute barrage ". No question of being an artist! First fight, first victory, and first sketch of a new life, Joan finally follows the courses of the Galí academy, discovers Cézanne and Van Gogh, binds with friends for life, like Llorens Artigas and also a certain Antonio Gaudí , is introduced to music and poetry. Talented, remarkable colorist, the young Miró is not an early genius, compared to the diabolical virtuosity of the young Picasso. What he will welcome later: " It made me revolt to express myself. Perhaps ease would have lessened this violence. […] I arrived at this virtuosity after great technical and physical suffering.
© Gerard Van Weyenbergh
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