Joan Miró: Surrealism, War Impact and Global Recognition of His Works

In 1929, Miró embarked on his journey of love, marrying Pilar Juncosa. Over time, he would have his daughter Dolores.

In 1930, he exhibited in Paris his papiers collés, which, a few months later, earned him the realization of decorations and costumes for the ballets of Montecarlo with choreography by Massine and music by Bizet.

In 1937, when the war had reached his native Spain, he collaborated with Picasso and Júlio González at the Pavilhão Espanhol da Exposição Internacional de Paris.

It was when Picasso painted Guernica, the war had reached his native Spain. Few know, but Miró also created a work for that exhibition with "The Reaper", also known as "Catalan Peasant in Revolt" . It was one of his greatest works, 5.5 meters (18 feet) high and considered one of the most important of the artist, but mysteriously was destroyed or lost in 1938. Only a few black and white photographs survived. It is said that Miró felt very sad about the loss of 'The Reaper'. In 1978, Josep Lluís Sert, the architect of the Republican Pavilion and the artist's foundation in Barcelona, gave him a large reproduction of a photograph of the work. Miró, the architect recalls, received the photograph "as if it were a lost child", and sat there in silence, thoughtful and very sad.

The start of World War II coincided with his most famous series, titled Constellations. "It was a long and hard work. Some shapes suggested others, which, in turn, claimed others to balance them. And these, others, was the never-ending story", Miró confesses with his picturesque language and accent.

From the period of World War II, some of Joan Miró's most lyrical and famous works are part of the 'Constellations' series, in which he seems to conjure entire skies to overcome the blind fury unleashed by war.

Thanks to the creation of the works of this series, Miró was able to survive without spiritual shipwreck in the collective hell, he declares: "I deliberately isolated myself: the night, the music, the stars, from then on played a much more important role in my painting".

In 1941, Miró exhibited his works in the American continent. Recognized worldwide in a first retrospective that brings together 73 canvases in a show at the Museum of Modern Art of New York.

From 1944, Miró began working on ceramics and sculpture. He used different materials from the conventional, such as, for example, scraps.

After eight years of absence, he returns to Paris and exhibits at the gallery of a new Marchand, Maeght, who, after a few years, will raise his Foundation.

After dedicating himself to ceramics and engraving for years, in 1959 he returns to painting. Paris gives him the recognition he deserves with a great anthological exhibition, 241 works at the Museum of Modern Art. Many honors and awards follow, such as the commission of the great mural of ceramics for the Guggenheim of New York.

In 1969, it was the turn of the Motherland to recognize his value. He holds a retrospective with 396 works in the Hospital de Santa Creu, which welcomed the death of Gaudí, his compatriot.

The great Palais of Paris, in 1974, brings together his sculpture, ceramics and painting, nothing less than the patronage of the French Government. The following year, the Miró Foundation is inaugurated. He paints tirelessly, with pencil or brush. The more his life and strength shorten, the larger his canvases and murals become.

The world bows to his art with anthologies to commemorate the artist's birthday. Madrid commissions him to create a large mural for the Palacio de Congressos and names a nearby square after him. He creates two 12-meter sculptures in Chicago and Kansas City and another 22 meters in Barcelona.

On November 30, 1981, at 3 pm, he took off from Palma on the plane that took him to Barcelona for the last time to complete some sculptures. On December 17, he returned exhausted to Palma. Six days later, a thrombosis meant the beginning of the end. The more he aged, the larger his projects and more difficult to realize.

Miró and his art survived the conflicts of the two great wars and gained definitive international recognition. A painter of intense reds, blues, greens and yellows, of puppets at the same time wise, childish and unsettling, he died at 3 pm on a Christmas day, on December 25, 1983, in Palma de Mallorca at 90 years old, rich and successful, celebrated all over the world as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

"He was the most surreal of us all", said the leader of the movement, the writer André Breton.