Finding Miro
A new tour of Barcelona enables visitors to follow in the footsteps of the city’s most famous artist, writes Ian Sclater
Miro’s Mosaic is a popular
sight on La Rambla. Photo:
Robert Schrader,
www.leaveyourdailyhell.com
Joan Miro has left his imprint on the city of his birth. Revered by its people not only as an artist, but also as a defender of democracy (he lived in internal exile during the Franco regime) and - almost as importantly for the locals – of Catalan culture, Miro is valued both for his visionary art and for his link with his land and its people.
From his early, figurative depictions of rural scenes in northeast Spain, Miro went on to develop a Surrealist language of symbols and fantastic imagery, using the brilliant colours of his native Catalonia to express a feeling of freedom and energy.
Often seen as the precursor of Abstract Expressionism, Miro referred to his style as an “assassination of painting” aimed at upsetting the visual elements of established painting.
Woman and Bird
MIRO TOUR
Art-lovers can take a new tour of the bustling streets in the Barri Gotic neighbourhood Miro knew as a child and visit some of the places associated with him, including his birthplace, the site of his first retrospective exhibition and one of his favourite restaurants. You can even drink to his health with a cocktail named after him.
A good place to start is halfway down Barcelona’s most famous thoroughfare, La Rambla (riverbed), where you’ll almost certainly come across the odd sight of a cluster of tourists at the Pla de l’Os aiming their cameras at the ground.
What they’re snapping is a large circular mosaic which Miro built into the pavement in 1976 on a spot close to his birthplace. Over the years the cobblestones deteriorated and the colours faded, and it was restored in 2006 to mark its 30th anniversary.
Shaped like the cosmos and bursting with the sun, constellations and the planets, Mosaic is in the recurring colours of many of Miro’s works: blue for the sea, yellow for earth and red for passion. The symbology is familiar too: escape from the earth, flight from earthly troubles.
Intended to greet people entering the city by sea (La Rambla leads down to the port), Mosaic is one of three public artworks which Miro created for everyone to see. The others are Woman and Bird, a 30- metre sculpture at the Parc Joan Miro, and a mural at the airport’s Terminal 2 to welcome people arriving by air.
In the streets off either side of La Rambla are a number of landmarks which help paint a picture of Miro’s life in Barcelona. (As you walk around, look out for the logo on Caixa banks, which Miro designed.)
The Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu, originally one of Europe’s earliest medical centres, is where Miro had his first retrospective exhibition in Spain in 1968. So unrecognised was he in his own country, especially in view of his opposition to Franco, that he had to wait till the age of 75 to see it.
May 68
One of the hospital’s last patients was another of Barcelona’s famous sons, Antoni Gaudí, who died there in 1926 after being struck by a tram. This is also where Picasso painted his Dead Woman (1903). The complex now houses a number of cultural institutions, including an exhibition space for contemporary art. The courtyard is a popular hangout.
Off the Carrer de Ferran (where the streetlamps are fashioned after the earrings of the designer’s mother in law) is Pasaje del Credito. Miro was born here in a first floor flat above what is now, fittingly, the Artevistas art gallery. The building is now part of the Hotel Rialto.
At number 4 Carrer de Cucarulla was the top floor art school which Miro attended, while nearby on the Calle Montsio is the atmospheric 4Cats bar and restaurant, where he attended drawing classes and met artist friends, including Gaudi.
Fundacio Joan Miro
You may also come across the College of Architects. While it is, ironically, one of Barcelona’s least attractive buildings, the graphics on the facade will be familiar to Miro fans. But they are by another master. When Picasso heard that they were thinking of getting Miro to decorate the building, he said he could easily mimic Miro’s style. And so he did.
Following the first retrospective of Miro’s work in Barcelona in 1968, moves began to establish a space in the city dedicated to his work. In accordance with his wishes, the new institution was also to promote the work of contemporary art in all its aspects.
Opened in 1975 in the hilltop Parc de Montjuic a few kilometres from the city centre, the Fundacio Joan Miro houses many of his works shown alongside works by other artists. The Miro collection comprises over 300 paintings, 150 sculptures, textiles, the complete graphic works and over 8,000 drawings, letters and documents detailing the artist’s creative process. There is also a changing programme of contemporary art exhibitions.
Sip a Miro cocktail at the Bar Boadas
After a day following in Miro’s footsteps, head for the Cocktail Bar Boadas just off La Rambla. Established in 1933, making it the oldest in Barcelona, it is famous for its Miro cocktail, a mix of J&B, Dubonnet and Grand Marnier. The walls are covered with memorabilia and celebrity photographs, and a framed letter from Miro proclaims: ‘I want my works to be a poem with music from a painter.’ Salud!
The Miro Tour can be done on foot, by bicycle or by metro with the aid of a map available at most tourist information offices. There is also a new illustrated chronology of Miro exhibited at Espai Merce Sala, an exhibition space in the lobby linking metro lines 3 and 5 at the Diagonal station.
“I understand the artist to be someone who, amid the silence of others, uses his voice to say something and who has the obligation that this thing not be useless, but something that offers a service to man.” - Joan Miro
THE EARLY YEARS
If time allows, take the 140-kilometre trip down the Costa Daurada (Gold Coast) to the village of Mont-roig (red mountain), where in the early 1900s Miro was sent for health reasons to live in the family farmhouse. This is where he first explored his identity as an artist.
There is a tour of sites (identified by a sign showing a red mountain) where Miro painted several of his earlier, more figurative works. These include The Farm (1921-22), which was later bought by his friend Ernest Hemingway. An inventory of the life of the local farm workers, Miro began it in Mont-roig and finished it in Paris, barefoot and standing on soil and grass brought from the farm.
The Farm
Housed in the old village church near the square which bears his name (and depicted in Mont-roig Village and Church, 1919), the Centre Miro is part-art gallery and part-folk museum. The walls are hung with reproductions of works done in and around Mont-roig (the originals of which are now in museums around the world) and there are artefacts depicting Mont-roig as Miro would have known it in the early 1900s.
The centre is run by an enthusiastic ex-mayor and two ladies (including his wife) who as young girls did household duties for Miro and can offer a fascinating insight into his daily life and work habits and his own explanation of some of the symbolism in his work. (Unfortunately, they do not speak English.)
In later life Miro spent his summers in Mont-roig, where visitors included Hemingway, Alexander Calder and the architect Josep Lluis Sert, who designed the Fundacio Joan Miro.
BIO
1893 Born in Barcelona, April 20
1918 First solo show opens - to general disapproval.
1920 Moves to Paris, drawn by the arts community gathering in Montparnasse.
1924 Joins the Surrealist group, having begun to experiment with collage
and reject the framing of traditional painting.
1939 Relocates to Varengeville in Normandy under threat of German invasion of France.
1940 Returns to Spain, which is now controlled by Franco.
1940-1 Creates the famous ‘Constellations’ series. The celestial symbolism and
depictions of women and birds recur throughout the rest of his career.
1954 Awarded the Venice Biennale printmaking prize.
1968 First retrospective exhibition in Spain.
1974 Creates the World Trade Centre Tapestry, which becomes one of the
most valuable artworks lost in the 9/11 attacks.
1975 The Fundacio Joan Miro opens to the public.
1983 Dies in Palma, Majorca, December 25. Is buried at Barcelona’s Montjuic
cemetery near the Fundacio Joan Miro.
2008 La Caresse des étoiles sells at auction for $17m, a world record for a Miro.
FURTHER INFO
www.barcelonaturisme.com,
www.fundaciomiro-bcn.org,
www.centremiro.com
HOW TO GET THERE
Ryanair flies to Barcelona four times a week from Edinburgh (starting at £40.99 one-way, incl. taxes and charges) and daily from Glasgow Prestwick (starting at £23.99 one-way, incl. taxes and charges). www.ryanair.com
