Fundació Joan Miró

Next on our list of major museums to visit in Barcelona is the Fundació Joan Miró. High atop a hill in the Montjuïc area of the city.  The Miró Museum, designed by Josep Lluis Sert is considered one of the world's most outstanding museum buildings.  Not only does it offer a spectacular view of Barcelona, it is home to an exceptional, comprehensive collection of more than 14,000 works by this Spanish icon of 20th Century art.

Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893 and grew up in the Bari Gotic.  Like so many other artists and intellectuals at the turn of the 20th Century, Miró spent time in Paris and eventually developed his unique style, a blend of Surrealism, Automatic Writing, Color Field, and Abstraction.  He is known for working in a wide range of mediums, including; painting, sculpture, printmaking, tapestry, and monumental outdoor works. He is internationally recognized in the pantheon of 20th Century artists and a beloved Catalan. Visiting this museum was definitely a highlight of our time in Barcelona.

    

We were treated to an exceptional exhibition of Miró's prints titled simply, "Miró: Printmaking."  While we have all seen our share of Miró prints, this exhibition that traced Miró's journey through all types of printmaking from the 1930s to 60s was surprisingly fresh and illuminating.

The Miró Museum also has a strict "No Photography" policy and as Karen was already on some sort of photo watch list, we did not take any pix. Here are a few shots of the interior of the museum from postcards or the internet.

The Miró Museum also includes a number of works by other artists in its collection. In this art girl's opinion, the most amazing work by far in this category was Alexander Calder's Font de Mercuri from 1937. Hermetically sealed in a glass box for obvious security and health reasons, this work, at first glance is a whimsical, water fountain with classic undulating forms by the American master sculptor but upon further examination, it becomes apparent that the substance flowing through the beautiful forms is not water, but mercury. The work was created  for the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.  It is a memorial to the town of Almaden which supplied 60 percent of the world's mercury and was devastated by Franco's regime.  The work was exhibited along with Picasso's Guernica as a protest of Franco's government.

"By early June of 1937, the Paris Exposition was already in progress. The German and Soviet pavilions towered above the fairgrounds, facing one another across the plaza in a monumental standoff of ideological posturing. In their shadow stood the modest Spanish Pavilion. Opening seven weeks late, it missed the wide publicity of the Fair's grand opening and received little recognition. It wasn't even shown on the official maps."   PBS


You can see a video of the fountain in action on YouTube here: