Aventura 21: Fundació de Joan Miró

"Entiendo que un artista es alguien que, entre el silencio de los demás, utiliza su voz para decir algo y que tiene la obligación de que no sea inútil, sino algo que preste servicio a los hombres."

"I understand that an artist is someone who, between the silence of the rest, uses his voice to say something and that has the obligation to not be useless but one that helps serve the people."

Joan Miró 

 In the first room of the Miró exhibition, I was smiling at the beautiful paintings of the farmland, the natural landscapes, and the cityscapes.  I was awe-struck by the way Miró saw the world and played with reality to create his art.  I laughed at the seahorse-like animal that sprang out of his imagination onto the canvas, or the numerous paintings titled, "Head of a Catalan Peasant" because his imagination in those first two rooms was so playful, colorful, and turning reality upside-down.

El Cazador (1923-1924)The Hunter

Cabeza de campesino catalán (1925)Head of a Catalán Farmer

But I think these paintings came in a time before reality turned Miró upside-down.  Starting in the 1930's,  and in the third room, Miró's paintings and the feelings I had for the paintings changed.  I wasn't laughing but put into deep thought.  The dark colors and the imaginary figures were more real than before, even if to some they looked just as fanciful.  Reading the commentary on Miró in his work, I connect the lines between the time period and this work: the Civil War is going on, and these paintings reflect the people all around who are suffering from the war.

Hombre y mujer frente a un montón de excrementos (1935)Man and woman in front of a pile of excrement

Personaje (1934)
Person

Moving to the next rooms, and moving into the 1940's, la posquerra, and the time of Franco, Miró's paintings have lost all of the fanciful, playful imagination from before and has an aura of anguish, torture, silence, screaming, and deep, deep thought.  A 50-piece lithograph series of monsters from nightmares.  A portrait, head of a man, that was very different from the head of the peasant before.  A piece titled, "Young Girl with Half Brown, Half Red Hair Slipping on the Blood of Frozen Hyacinths of a Burning Football Field" (1939) stopped me in my tracks because I never would have placed a footy field amidst this anguish, and yet, there it is.  Or a canvas that was literally burnt up with flames.

Plate XXIII from the Barcelona Series

Cabeza de un hombre (1937)
Head of a Man

Burnt Canvas

Miró, as he is quoted at the beginning of this post, seem to realize the power of an artist.  During these torturous years of Spain, Miró used his art to speak for the suffering of the people.  And his art now still speaks of the history, still keeps the memory of this time present, as a reminder to never return there.