Miró: the painting poet

Joan Miró was born in a small village near Barcelona in 1893. In 1920, the young artist moved to Paris where he met Pablo Picasso, surrealists Max Ernst and André Masson, as well as poets Max Jacob and Pierre Reverdy. That's when he created his painting "Horse, Pipe and Red Flower." Visible in the foreground: a book. An exhibition in Hamburg now explores Miró's passion for literature.

The year 1921 saw Miró's first exclusive exhibition in Paris - which was not exactly a success. Yet the Spaniard continued to paint. Texts start to play an ever growing role in his art. In this case, the title of the still life has a direct connection to print: "Glove and Newspaper."

Miró's works became more and more abstract under the influence of Dada and surrealism. This painting, simply entitled "Painting," came into being in 1933. The colorful and playful world of his works, for which he is known today, evolved during this period.

During the 1930s, Miró set out to "assassinate" painting. What he had in mind were traditional, bourgeois painting methods which he despised. He tried to overcome them by developing alternative art elements, like with these "Rhythmical Figures" from 1924.

Throughout his life, Miró did not differentiate between painting and poetry. He saw himself as a painting poet.Texts and words work together in his creations. On this painting, the title is placed in the center of the canvas occupying half of the space: "Une étoile caresse le sein d’une négresse" (A star caresses the breast of a negress).

A wide-eyed young girl is standing in a leisure park; behind her four people are looking forward to the various attractions. In the foreground, there is a carousel; on the left, a wild water trail. Or did Miró have something totally different in mind? The abstract painting from 1950, "Little Fair Girl in the Park," leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Miró caused an uproar on February 23, 1960, when he painted over his own portrait from1937 in the Galerie Maeght in Paris with huge black hieroglyphs. Those who witnessed the artistic act were rather appalled.

The objective of the surrealists was to overcome realism by changing existing perspectives. By means of realistic painting techniques, artists such as Salvador Dalí succeeded in detextualizing their works. By contrast, Miró created purely abstract paintings bereft of any kind of realism, such as "Red Circle Star."

Inspired by literature and poetry, words and images in Miro's oeuvre connect in ambiguous ways. A bit of blue, a bit of black, a red spot and a few letters: The result is an enigmatically painted poem. Not without a reason is this painting entitled "Poème (I)."

Throughout his life, words and poems elicited associations in Miró which he let flow into his abstract works, though not always in obvious ways. The Miró exhibition "Painting and Poetry" can be seen in Hamburg's Bucerius Kunst Forum until May 25 before moving on to the Kunstsammlung NRW in Dusseldorf. The exhibition will be shown there from June 13 until September 27.