"Miró & Artigas – Terres De Grand Feu" Catalogue - 1956

With his wide-ranging oeuvre, comprising strikingly original paintings, prints, ceramics, sculptures, metal engravings and murals, Catalan modernist Joan Miró was a critical force in moving 20th-century art toward complete abstraction. Although often considered an early Surrealist because of his nonobjective imagery and evocation of the subconscious, he defies neat categorization.

Miró’s identity is largely rooted in the city of his birth: Barcelona. To this day, a number of his public artworks can be found there, including the 72-foot-tall statue Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird), 1983. Female and avian forms, along with bright colors and the theme of Catalan pride, are recurring elements in his work.

The radical visual world Miró created with his expressive lines, signature symbols and biomorphic shapes influenced such American Abstract Expressionists as Jackson Pollock and Color Field painters like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

Mirò continued to work and experiment until his death at the age of 90 in 1983. Five years before that, he was quoted saying, “I painted these paintings in a frenzy, with real violence so that people will know that I am alive, that I’m breathing, that I still have a few more places to go. I’m heading in new directions.”

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Joan Gardy Artigas is a Catalan ceramist, artist and was a close collaborator with Joan Miró. Artigas was born on June 18th, 1938 in Boulogne-Billancourt (near Paris) and his father was Josep Llorens i Artigas, who worked closely with Miró and Pablo Picasso. Artigas was able to work for Miró while still a teenager because of his father's relationship with Miró. Artigas trained at the École des beaux-arts in Paris, where he met the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Artigas established his studio, and at Giacometti's suggestion, he concentrated on sculpture. Artigas had some success and shared his expertise with the Cubists Georges Braque and Marc Chagall. When Artigas created the 7,200 tiles for the Miró Wall, he coloured the tiles based on an image that Miró had created. Artigas later returned to assisting Miró when his father decided to retire. His father had worked with Miró for 20 years, creating large murals including examples for UNESCO, IBM and the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos in Madrid.

Artigas worked with Miró on, Dona i Ocell, one of his last large works, which was covered in broken tiles by Artigas. In this case, the tiles remind the viewer of Gaudi's work. In 1982, Antoni Tàpies won the Gold Medal of Catalonia for a mosaic in the Plaça de Catalunya in Sant Boi de Llobregat. Artigas had constructed the ceramics for this prize-winning exhibit. Artigas continued his art, and he was awarded his first solo exhibition in America in 1982. He has been a visiting artist at two American universities and has started a foundation to celebrate his father's work. Artigas serves on the board of the foundation Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona.