The artistic connection between Spanish art master Joan Miró (1893-1983) and American painters is being showcased in a panoramic exhibition. The exhibition, "Miró and America," jointly curated by the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., features over 130 works. Launched to commemorate the foundation's 50th anniversary, the exhibition will run until February 2026, followed by a tour to Washington, D.C. in March 2026.
Miró visited the United States seven times between 1947 and 1968, where he saw artistic possibilities that were completely different from the European tradition, which inspired a grander, freer, and more materialistic side of his work.
Exhibition photos courtesy of Joan Miró Foundation.
The exhibition "Miró and America" presents this transatlantic artistic dialogue in galleries 0-14, arranged roughly chronologically, showcasing the creative resonance between Miró and over forty artists from different generations. The core section focuses on the 1940s and 50s—a period of innovation and dynamism for New York artists, and for Miró, it marked the initiation of important public commissions. Miró and his contemporaries shared the ideal of creating art that was "personal yet universal."
Exhibition site
Miró's tags
Those encountering Miró's work for the first time are invariably captivated by his childlike and dreamlike graphics. However, Miró suffered from depression multiple times throughout his life. In 1911, when he was 18, he said, "I was depressed… I was very ill and bedridden for three months." He used painting to cope with his illness; it is said that painting calmed him down and made him less gloomy. Miró said that without painting, he would become extremely depressed and melancholic, "My mind was filled with bad thoughts, and I didn't know what to do."
The Carnival of the Clowns, 1925
The imagery of a ladder also appears in "The Dog Barking at the Moon" (1926).
His mental state is clearly revealed in his painting *The Carnival of the Pagliacci*. He attempted to depict his inner turmoil, the despair of wanting to escape it, and the resulting pain. Miró depicted the symbolism of the ladder in this painting, a symbol that reappeared in many of his later works. It symbolizes escape.
Joan Miró was born in Barcelona, Catalonia in 1893, the son of a goldsmith and watchmaker. Miró attended both business and fine arts schools in his early years. He worked as a clerk during his youth, but after suffering a nervous breakdown, he abandoned business and devoted himself entirely to art. His early works, influenced by Van Gogh and Cézanne, are characterized by vibrant color and painterly texture; this period is known to scholars as his "Catalan Fauvist period."
In 1924, Miró joined the Surrealist group. The inherent symbolism and poetry in Miró's works, as well as the inherent duality and contradictions, perfectly matched the dreamlike automatism style advocated by the group. Many of Miró's works were no longer as chaotic and unfocused as before; he began to experiment with collage and painting techniques to break the framework of traditional painting.
One of his representative works is "Constellation".
In numerous interviews since the 1930s, Miró has been outspoken in criticizing traditional painting methods as tools to support bourgeois society and has declared his intention to "kill painting" in order to break the established visual rules of painting.
Key Turning Point: The Trip to New York in 1947
Surrealism entered the United States in the 1930s through a series of exhibitions, with numerous shows at the Julian Levy Gallery and the Pierre Matisse Gallery laying its foundation. It culminated in Alfred Barr's 1936 exhibition, *Fantasy Art, Dada and Surrealism*, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At that time, the controversial Salvador Dalí had become the public's representative of Surrealism, and the exhibition included more than ten of his Surrealist works, a number comparable to that of Miró. This artistic contrast was reaffirmed in 1941 when both Catalan artists held retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art. By then, many Surrealist artists had fled to New York to escape the war in Europe.
Juan Miró
Miró's first trip to the United States was in 1947, shortly after the end of World War II. He came from war-torn Spain, while New York City was vibrant and rapidly becoming a new center of world art. This atmosphere of freedom, optimism, and boundless possibility was a spiritual liberation for Miró. In New York, he met emerging American avant-garde artists such as Jackson Pollock, Achille Gorky, and Robert Motherwell. Although Miró's work was rooted in Surrealism, his exchanges with these American artists were reciprocal. The American artists saw in his work the allure of the subconscious, automatism, and non-figurative forms; conversely, Miró also felt the immense scale, unrestrained brushstrokes, and powerful energy of American Abstract Expressionism. This encouraged him to further push the boundaries of the canvas.
In America, he discovered industrial materials not commonly used in high art in Europe, such as aluminum and copper plates. He began painting on hard metal surfaces, a stark contrast to the softness of canvas. The smooth, hard surface of the composite board was perfect for his intricate depictions and drips.
Pablo Picasso and Juan Miró in Moujan, 1967
Miró visited the United States seven times between 1947 and 1968, experiences that allowed him to expand his network.
Miró's international standing is also built upon decades of passion for his work among American artists. In fact, his first visit to New York in 1947 marked a pivotal turning point in his artistic career. He continuously drew inspiration from innovation and explored new directions for his work through exchanges with local artists. Although Miró's work was initially controversial, he gradually established himself as one of the torchbearers of a new generation, thanks to exhibitions continuously curated by Pierre Matisse.
The Pierre Matisse Gallery, mentioned here, was a pivotal modern art gallery in 20th-century New York, founded by Pierre Matisse, son of the renowned Fauvist master and French painter Henri Matisse. Known as the "importer of European modern art to America," Matisse was active from 1931 to 1989. For over half a century, he introduced many outstanding European modern artists to the United States, including not only Miró but also Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, and Balthus, significantly shaping and enriching New York's art scene.
The gallery has hosted several important solo exhibitions for Miró, greatly enhancing his fame and influence in the United States.
In 1941 and 1959, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held retrospective exhibitions of him that toured the United States, allowing American artists to compare and learn from his artistic achievements. In 1944, Jackson Pollock listed Miró and Picasso as "two artists I admire most"; and twenty-five years later, Miró admitted: "What truly inspires me is American painting."
"The Code and Zodiac Signs for Falling in Love with Women", 1941
In early 1945, American Abstract Expressionist artist Barnett Newman wrote: "Miró marks the beginning of a new art movement... He created a completely new artistic language, opening up a new realm that will inevitably change the face of art for decades to come." This enthusiasm reflected both the influence of the Constellation series and foresaw the reception Miró would receive upon his arrival in New York two years later. Newman further wrote: "In New York, a spontaneous trend has emerged among diverse artists who are moving from Miró's ideas into new frontiers of subjective abstraction."
In a magazine interview in June 1947, Miró defined the postwar period as "a transitional phase." When asked about his views on American painters, he responded, "I particularly admire their vibrant creative passion and fresh temperament," adding that their "sense of power and vitality" had a potential influence.
"The Red Sun", 1948
A transatlantic artistic dialogue thus unfolded rapidly. The calligraphic brushstrokes and weighty textures incorporated into Miró's 1948 work, *The Red Sun*, were a response to the artistic energy of his New York contemporaries whom he admired. When Washington collector Duncan Phillips acquired the work in 1952, he immediately included it in a special exhibition of "Expressionist Abstract Painters," displaying it alongside works by Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Alfonso Osorio, Theodoros Stamos, and others, thereby establishing Miró's central position in the development of contemporary art.
In general, his experience in the United States opened a new window for Miró, allowing him to see artistic possibilities that were completely different from the European tradition, and inspiring a grander, freer, and more materialistic side of his work.
Miró actively participates in public projects
In the United States, he gained opportunities to create large-scale murals and public art projects. For example, in 1950, he collaborated with ceramic artist José Llorence Artigas to create a ceramic mural for Harvard University's Holyoke Center. While relatively small in scale, it was significant—marking the beginnings of his art's acceptance by mainstream American academic institutions. Later, he created the monumental ceramic mural "Sun and Moon" (1955-1958) for UNESCO headquarters in Paris, for which he received the Guggenheim International Prize. These projects forced him to reflect on the relationship between art and architecture, greatly enhancing the public and monumental nature of his work.
Ceramic mural "Sun and Moon" (Image source: Internet)
The Blue Series (1961)
During his time in the United States, he created his most famous "Blue" series of paintings (such as "Blue No. 2"). These works are enormous in scale, with delicate symbols floating on a deep blue background, reflecting a combination of spatial sense and his personal poetic world.
The tapestry before it was destroyed
The tapestry by Juan Miró and Joseph Royo once hung in the lobby of the World Trade Center in New York City, but was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This exhibition will display the design drafts of this tapestry.
In the final years of his career, many of Juan Miró's works focused more on symbolism and the messages they conveyed, rather than on concrete images and detailed depictions. He no longer paid excessive attention to the subjects depicted, but rather focused on the symbolic meanings and messages ultimately presented to the public.
In 1976, the Juan Miró Foundation Center for Contemporary Art was established in Barcelona, his hometown and a place where he often drew inspiration for his work. Four years later, in 1979, the University of Barcelona awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his artistic achievements and influence on art.
The exhibition challenges traditional research frameworks by placing the United States at a crucial juncture in its artistic development, thus offering a fresh academic perspective. Furthermore, it does not present a one-way narrative of "how Miró influenced America," but rather reveals the two-way interaction within art.
The curatorial focus is on the central role of mid-20th-century female artists in movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting, giving artists like Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler their due historical recognition. In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, prints, films, and archival materials, comprehensively showcasing the diverse facets of transatlantic art exchange.
This exhibition, co-organized by the Miró Foundation and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., will run until February 22, 2026, and will be on display in Washington, D.C. from March 21 to July 5, 2026.
Reference source: Fundació Joan Miró
