Paysage Miró: The magic spark

At the Foundation, with the title The Magic Spark, we will unveil the role that random, unexpected encounters and findings played in Miró’s life. As we visit the Espai Estrella, which emulates the artist’s walks and his life path, we gain an understanding of how Miró treasured and drew on all these encounters, findings, images and stimuli to shape his own art.

Miró’s studios are his mental landscape, snapshots of his creative process. On the rare occasions when he invited someone to visit his work space, and likewise his home, he first led them through his particular collection of objects, images, and mementos of friends, places and moments. Only after that would he show them his work. We are now the fortunate guests being allowed to peek behind the scenes and gain access to his imaginary museum, suspended in time, guided by Miró himself.

Following this idea, we use the fragmented structure of the exhibition spaces to convey “sparks” in six areas and their intersections: nature, vocabulary, cultures, arts, friends and places. It is almost impossible to isolate each one of these sparks thematically and define closed categories. Geographical or time-related classifications are equally useless. We will begin a journey in which they will intertwine and coexist, as in fact all findings coexist over the course of a lifetime.

We will reconstruct Miró’s process by looking at his works and those of his artist friends, enveloped by objects and clippings from the studios, along with previously unpublished photographs and documents from the archives of the Foundation and Successió Miró. We will relive the artist’s relationships with key figures such as Picasso, Calder, Sert and Prats; the power of the sky and the earth through his little creatures, branches, stones and seashells; the inspiration he found in music, dance, poetry and literature through his record collection and his library; the spirit of primitive and folk art through his collection of objects, pieces of his living spaces and mementos of moments; a succession of commotions and disruptions.

Much as when Miró went on his walks, the visitor can now amble through the Espai Estrella collecting sparks: the images, objects and impressions that allowed Joan to become Miró and that point us in the direction of the pieces we will see in this magnificent Paysage Miró.

The Magic Spark presents 38 works by Joan Miró and other artists, from the collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Es Baluard Museu, Fundació Joan Miró de Barcelona, MACBA and the Foundation itself. There will also be more than 250 objects and documents from the Taller Sert, Son Boter and the house of Son Abrines, preserved in the collections and archives of the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, Successió Miró, Fundació Mas Miró de Mont-roig and private lenders. These materials make up the constellation of “sparks” that are at the origin of Miró’s work.

An interactive design involving printed materials invites visitors to literally compile these findings, expressed in Miró’s own words, which they can then take home as a source of future inspiration and which provide clues for visiting the other exhibitions that make up the Paysage Miró.

Summary of works:

• Documents, photographs and objects: > 250 items
• Painting, sculpture and ceramics: 38 pieces

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) _ 16 works on loan

• 9 Joan Miró
• 2 Alexander Calder
• 1 Alberto Giacometti
• 1 Wassily Kandinsky
• 2 Pablo Picasso (engraved facsimiles)

Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona) _ 5 works on loan

• 4 paintings Miró + 1 ceramics Miró-Artigas

Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma _ 7 works on loan

• 3 Miró
• 1 Barceló
• 1 Motherwell
• 1 Braque
• 1 Léger

Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) _ 1 Klee on loan

Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca _ 9 works from the museum collection

• 6 paintings – 3 sculptures