Joan Miró and Pilar Juncosa

Joan Miró Ferrà was born in Barcelona in 1893. From a very young age, he often used to travel to Tarragona and Mallorca, places whose landscapes would have a profound effect on him. Drawn by the pull of the land, light and sky in both places, they became a source of inspiration, giving rise to some of the characteristic visual images and symbols seen in his work.

Miró’s long intermittent relationship with Mallorca can be divided into three main stages: his Mallorcan stays as a small child and young boy with his maternal grandmother in Sóller, his marriage to islander Pilar Juncosa in 1929, and lastly the period when he made the island his home in 1956 through to his death in 1983.

Mallorca was a superb creative backdrop for Miró, offering him peace, freedom and much sought silence. At the age of 63, he made Son Abrines, in the Cala Major district, his home, finally being able to have the studio of his dreams there – the Sert Studio.

Miró went on to buy a neighbouring 18th century rural house called Son Boter. This allowed him to have a group of studios where over one third of all his work would be created.

That final stage was not, therefore, a period of withdrawal but a fertile one, rather like a garden cultivated with dedication and care, to echo a metaphor used by the artist in 1959, when he said “I work like a gardener”. The outcome of that period was work in a wide variety of creative fields, with paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, ceramics and tapestries. It was a period of reflection and creative synthesis that drove him in new directions, eager to “go further”, as he would say, breaking all the conventional rules of artistic expression.

The work that Miró produced during this stage was non-conformist, severing all ties with his previous art or artistic language. This artistic breakaway and broadening of his horizons is reflected by a greater independence, freedom of expression and radicalism. His eagerness to continue exploring techniques and his constant dialogue with avant-garde movements led to work where the influence of Abstract Expressionism, Oriental art and popular culture is clearly evident.

Miró’s life was ruled by discretion, order and total dedication to creativity, far removed from any kind of extravagance. This contrasts with the strong imaginary, playful or message-related aspect of his work. The huge legacy that he left bears witness to his keen creative labours. As one of his biographers, Jacques Dupin, put it, he was an “applied poet”.

At this stage of his life, Miró was now an internationally famous painter and an artist who worked silently and incessantly. It was a period of almost three decades of intense activity and impassioned aesthetic adventures, and his ability to rise to the challenge and desire to experiment never flagged.

Pilar Juncosa Iglesias, Joan Miró’s wife and benefactor, was born in Palma in 1904. Her parents, Lambert Juncosa and Enriqueta Iglesias, were originally from Catalonia and her mother had family ties to Miró’s grandmother, since they were cousins. In fact, Pilar and Joan’s mothers were brought up together by the Ferrà family (Miró’s grandparents), when Pilar’s mother was orphaned. As a result, there were close links between Pilar Juncosa and Joan Miró right from their childhood.

They were married in 1929 and, one year later, their only daughter, Maria Dolors Miró, was born in Barcelona. During the half century of their marriage, Pilar Juncosa exerted a discrete but considerable influence on the artist. In Miró’s own words: “My wife Pilar is the ideal companion for me. Without her, I would be an orphan lost in this world. Other than my work, I have no idea of anything or how to organize things. She is my guardian angel.”
[1]. Hence they were a stable closely united couple, and this helped to ensure two carefully balanced lives.

Pilar Juncosa stands out for her generosity, and this was fundamental in the creation of the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca in 1981, when the couple laid its cornerstones by drafting the foundation statutes and donating the artwork and documents that make up the collection. In 1986, following the artist’s death, she raised the need for the construction of a building that would act as the Fundació’s headquarters. She then rounded off Miró’s legacy (the donation of his studios) by announcing that she would donate the land where the museum currently stands and that 42 works would be auctioned at Sotheby’s to finance its construction. This building was opened to the public in 1992.

[1] Raillard, G. Conversaciones con Joan Miró. Granica, Barcelona, 1978