WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.459 Okay, let's unpack this. We are diving into an 00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.919 artist whose name, for many, conjures up, well, 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:10.339 these whimsical, almost childlike squiggles, 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:13.380 vibrant colors, and these, you know, floating 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:15.560 geometric shapes. Exactly. You've probably seen 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:17.760 his cheerful suns, maybe his moons and birds, 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.280 on a museum poster or a big public sculpture. 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.280 Right. But that vibrant sort of surface simplicity... 00:00:23.949 --> 00:00:27.129 It hides a much darker, far more volatile core. 00:00:27.370 --> 00:00:29.670 We are talking about the Catalan master Joan 00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:32.789 Miro y Fera. And if you, our listener, only know 00:00:32.789 --> 00:00:36.429 Miro through those iconic, seemingly gentle lithographs, 00:00:36.429 --> 00:00:38.890 you are truly missing the storm. I mean, the 00:00:38.890 --> 00:00:41.590 fury that drove his creation. This is an artist 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:43.950 whose life was characterized by this intense 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:46.310 internal chaos. We're talking deep documented 00:00:46.310 --> 00:00:49.009 episodic depression and all this external political 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:51.770 turmoil that spanned two world wars and the Spanish 00:00:51.770 --> 00:00:53.509 Civil War. And somehow he changed. channeled 00:00:53.509 --> 00:00:55.689 all of that darkness through this aggressive, 00:00:55.909 --> 00:00:58.570 almost intellectual contempt for the very medium 00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:00.609 that made him famous. He was, and this is his 00:01:00.609 --> 00:01:02.969 phrase, fundamentally dedicated to the assassination 00:01:02.969 --> 00:01:05.909 of painting. That phrase, the assassination of 00:01:05.909 --> 00:01:07.790 painting, it tells you everything, doesn't it? 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:09.549 It just lays out the contradictions that defined 00:01:09.549 --> 00:01:12.730 his entire nine -decade career. He was born in 00:01:12.730 --> 00:01:15.950 Barcelona in 1893, lived all the way to 1983, 00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:20.090 a prodigious Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist. 00:01:20.269 --> 00:01:22.930 And he wasn't just some local hero, though. His 00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:25.510 identity as a Catalan was completely central 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:28.010 to his rebellion. Oh, absolutely. Against the 00:01:28.010 --> 00:01:30.390 political powers of Spain, especially. And his 00:01:30.390 --> 00:01:32.730 influence is still anchored in that identity. 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:35.280 You can visit two museums dedicated to him today, 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.299 one in his native Barcelona, the Fundació Joan 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:41.319 Moreau, and another in Palma, Mallorca. So his 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:43.680 connection to his homeland, his terra, it was 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:45.599 unbreakable, even when he was right in the middle 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.900 of the avant -garde nucleus of Paris. That's 00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:49.760 right. So our mission in this deep dive is to 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.560 try and reconcile those things, the radical rebellious 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:56.120 roots, the man who hated bourgeois art with his 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:58.500 eventual global acclaim and that often whimsical 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:01.099 style. Right. How does the same artist embody 00:02:01.099 --> 00:02:04.379 this fierce Catalan? pride, this pioneering surrealist 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:07.019 automatism, and this radical, almost violent 00:02:07.019 --> 00:02:09.419 drive to just overthrow traditional art. We're 00:02:09.419 --> 00:02:11.819 pulling from a comprehensive set of biographical 00:02:11.819 --> 00:02:14.960 and critical sources to trace his evolution through 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:17.659 all these phases, looking at his career stages, 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.759 specific major works, and his lasting legacy 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:24.539 across, well, everything. Painting, sculpture, 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:27.500 ceramics. And here's your initial nugget of surprise, 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:30.439 which really speaks to his refusal to be categorized. 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:33.599 Okay. While he is, you know, overwhelmingly categorized 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:36.400 as a key surrealist figure, his personal style 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.219 often veered into other, sometimes conflicting 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:42.259 territories. Things like fauvism and expressionism, 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:44.439 especially early on. So he wasn't interested 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:46.599 in being put into a neat little art historical 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:49.199 box. Not at all. That refusal to be categorized 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:50.979 runs straight through his work, even when he 00:02:50.979 --> 00:02:53.379 was collaborating with the most, let's say, rigid 00:02:53.379 --> 00:02:56.159 surrealist minds. To understand Miro's eventual 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:58.400 radical shifts, we really have to start at the 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.419 beginning, when his pursuit of art was still 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:02.919 this major conflict, not some celebrated career. 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.979 Exactly. He was born into a family of respected 00:03:05.979 --> 00:03:09.349 craftspeople. His father, Mikael Miro Adzirius 00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:12.169 was a successful goldsmith and watchmaker. And 00:03:12.169 --> 00:03:13.969 there's some fascinating biographical context 00:03:13.969 --> 00:03:16.590 here. The sources suggest that the Miro surname 00:03:16.590 --> 00:03:20.129 might indicate possible Jewish roots, specifically 00:03:20.129 --> 00:03:23.530 Murano or Converso Iberian Jews who had converted 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:26.870 centuries prior. Which speaks to this deep underlying 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:30.169 history of cultural identity in his family line, 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:32.590 even if it wasn't something overtly discussed. 00:03:32.889 --> 00:03:35.050 And his creative impulse, it showed up early. 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.189 He started drawing classes when he was just seven 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:39.949 years old. But this passion was immediately met 00:03:39.949 --> 00:03:42.810 with resistance, specifically from his pragmatic, 00:03:43.150 --> 00:03:45.729 business -minded father. Right. So despite that 00:03:45.729 --> 00:03:48.949 strong paternal dismay, Miro enrolled at the 00:03:48.949 --> 00:03:52.550 Fine Art Academy, La Loccia, in 1907. And this 00:03:52.550 --> 00:03:54.669 is the crucial context. It sets up his entire 00:03:54.669 --> 00:03:56.870 rebellious career. He didn't just enroll in art 00:03:56.870 --> 00:03:58.449 school. No, he also went to business school. 00:03:58.530 --> 00:04:00.870 He was trying to do both. He started his working 00:04:00.870 --> 00:04:02.789 life as a clerk when he was a teenager, trying 00:04:02.789 --> 00:04:06.669 to balance this burning creative urge with the 00:04:06.669 --> 00:04:09.490 expectations of a conventional, reliable career. 00:04:09.789 --> 00:04:12.210 And that tension was quite literally catastrophic 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:14.629 for him. The pivotal moment that... cemented 00:04:14.629 --> 00:04:17.730 his lifelong devotion to art, was a severe nervous 00:04:17.730 --> 00:04:20.750 breakdown. He abandoned the business world completely 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:24.149 after this major crisis in 1911. So this wasn't 00:04:24.149 --> 00:04:26.610 a gentle transition. It wasn't some slow realization. 00:04:27.170 --> 00:04:30.290 No, it was a physical and mental collapse. It 00:04:30.290 --> 00:04:32.470 forced him out of the conventional track he hated 00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:35.550 and just, violently propelled him into the riskier, 00:04:35.649 --> 00:04:38.490 but for him necessary, world of the avant -garde. 00:04:38.949 --> 00:04:41.410 That breakdown acts as this profound catalyst. 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:43.649 It forced him to choose. And if we look at the 00:04:43.649 --> 00:04:45.889 significance of that, it wasn't just a career 00:04:45.889 --> 00:04:48.029 change. It was, you know, a survival mechanism. 00:04:48.189 --> 00:04:51.189 It was. Art became a necessary form of therapy, 00:04:51.329 --> 00:04:54.029 of expression. It moved him abruptly away from 00:04:54.029 --> 00:04:56.209 the pressures of a conventional life, which he 00:04:56.209 --> 00:04:58.589 clearly found intolerable, toward the freedom 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:01.569 of pure artistic creation. Even if that creation 00:05:01.569 --> 00:05:04.189 was financially insecure and at first met with 00:05:04.189 --> 00:05:07.189 total ridicule. And this forced divergence immediately 00:05:07.189 --> 00:05:10.629 showed itself in his style. By moving away from 00:05:10.629 --> 00:05:12.810 that conventional pressure, he opened the door 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:15.269 to the expressive freedom of what scholars call 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:18.750 his Catalan Fulvist period. So even before surrealism, 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:21.129 he was absorbing these major influences of the 00:05:21.129 --> 00:05:23.709 early 20th century. He was looking for methods 00:05:23.709 --> 00:05:26.110 to express the internal turbulence he'd just 00:05:26.110 --> 00:05:29.370 experienced. Absolutely. He was particularly 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.089 inspired by the revolutionary Fulv and Cubist 00:05:32.089 --> 00:05:33.709 exhibitions that were happening in Barcelona 00:05:33.709 --> 00:05:36.699 and abroad. especially the post -impressionist 00:05:36.699 --> 00:05:39.360 intensity of Vincent van Gogh and the structural 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:42.350 clarity of Paul Cezanne. So his initial works 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:44.329 from this period, the ones that gave him that 00:05:44.329 --> 00:05:47.569 Fauvist look, were really distinct. Very distinct. 00:05:47.910 --> 00:05:50.410 Think about pieces like Portrait of Vincent Nubiola 00:05:50.410 --> 00:05:53.550 from 1917. The figure is rendered with these 00:05:53.550 --> 00:05:56.310 vibrant, almost clashing colors. Or Nord Sud, 00:05:56.509 --> 00:05:58.810 also from 1917, which is a still life. Right. 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:01.110 In those early works, he was already showing 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.589 this tendency to just fill the canvas with vibrant, 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:06.189 colorful surfaces and a more painterly, expressive 00:06:06.189 --> 00:06:09.100 treatment. Such a sharp contrast to the sparse, 00:06:09.139 --> 00:06:11.240 hard -edged, symbolic style that would later 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:13.839 define his most famous works. And Nord's Sud 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.220 is a fascinating piece because it directly references 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:19.060 his growing intellectual interests. The title 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:21.339 is taken from an actual literary newspaper of 00:06:21.339 --> 00:06:23.899 the same name. Which he incorporates right into 00:06:23.899 --> 00:06:27.480 the still life composition. Now, this is a compositional 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:29.339 device you do in cubism, you know, integrating 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:32.519 objects from the real world. But for Miro, it's 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.180 also a clear signal to the viewer. He's positioning 00:06:35.180 --> 00:06:37.500 himself. He is. He's positioning himself firmly 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:39.839 within the literary and broader avant -garde 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.040 communities, the very groups that would define 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:44.819 his time in Paris. But unfortunately, his introduction 00:06:44.819 --> 00:06:48.399 to the general public was just bridal. His first 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:52.079 solo show in 1918 at Galleries d 'Almel was met 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:54.860 with total derision. Sources say his work was 00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:58.470 actually ridiculed, and shockingly. I mean, can 00:06:58.470 --> 00:07:01.110 you imagine pouring your recovery and your passion 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:03.990 into a show only to have people mock it openly? 00:07:04.269 --> 00:07:06.490 It must have been truly demoralizing for a young 00:07:06.490 --> 00:07:08.889 artist trying to establish himself. But you have 00:07:08.889 --> 00:07:11.209 to wonder if that experience, combined with the 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:13.290 earlier business failure and the nervous breakdown. 00:07:13.610 --> 00:07:15.910 It just solidified his defiant streak. Right. 00:07:15.990 --> 00:07:17.430 He'd already broken away from the conventional 00:07:17.430 --> 00:07:20.329 world. Now the art world was rejecting him, too. 00:07:20.449 --> 00:07:23.110 This probably fueled his later contempt for bourgeois 00:07:23.110 --> 00:07:26.449 taste and the idea of art as a commodity. Absolutely. 00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:30.290 So by 1920, Miro makes the decisive move to Paris. 00:07:30.490 --> 00:07:33.069 He joins that vibrant arts community gathering 00:07:33.069 --> 00:07:35.930 in Montparnasse. Yet he never fully cut ties 00:07:35.930 --> 00:07:38.310 with home. And this is critical to understanding 00:07:38.310 --> 00:07:41.250 his dual identity. He continually spent his summers 00:07:41.250 --> 00:07:43.589 at his family's farm in Mont -Roy -del -Combe 00:07:43.589 --> 00:07:46.750 in Catalonia. It became his psychological touchstone. 00:07:46.910 --> 00:07:50.019 And this geographical duality? Paris for innovation, 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:52.839 Mont -Roy for roots and spiritual renewal. It's 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:54.879 perfectly encapsulated in the famous painting, 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.959 The Farm. Ah, yes. Created between 1921 and 1922. 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:03.079 This piece is universally seen as a key transitional 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:05.459 work. It captures both that cubist structural 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:08.259 restraint and the beginnings of his highly individual 00:08:08.259 --> 00:08:11.079 symbolic language. It is the ultimate expression 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:14.240 of his sense of place. The rural Catalan scene 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.800 is depicted with this painstaking, intense, almost 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.079 microscopic detail. but the composition is augmented 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.120 by the presence of a newspaper. There's that 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.459 newspaper again. That modern avant -garde element 00:08:24.459 --> 00:08:26.860 placed right in the center, symbolizing his exposure 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.360 to modernist theories in Paris. It's a perfect 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:31.300 bridge between his tradition and his future. 00:08:31.540 --> 00:08:34.379 And we have a phenomenal anecdote here involving 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:36.799 one of the greatest literary figures of the century, 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:40.639 Ernest Hemingway. He later purchased the farm. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.460 He loved it so much he kept it with him and offered 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:46.620 this incredibly high praise. He said it captured 00:08:46.620 --> 00:08:48.539 both the feeling of Spain when you are there 00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.879 and, crucially, the feeling of Spain when you 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:53.500 are away and cannot go there. That ability to 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:56.080 capture the spiritual essence of a place, the 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.139 feeling rather than just the visual reality, 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:01.399 that's what truly distinguished Miro. This deep 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.340 connection to Mont -Rogue wasn't just nostalgia, 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:06.720 it was formative. It helped him develop the intense 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.779 personal symbolism and that strong Catalan nationalism 00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:12.539 that would pervade his entire body of work, even 00:09:12.539 --> 00:09:15.159 when he was exploring his most abstract or cosmic 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:17.460 themes decades later. It was his anchor in the 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:20.539 chaos. So in Paris, Miro was quickly thrust into 00:09:20.539 --> 00:09:23.519 the full force of the avant -garde. Joseph Dalmau 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.139 arranged his first Parisian solo exhibition at 00:09:26.139 --> 00:09:30.080 Galerie Lolicorne in 1921. But the defining moment... 00:09:30.139 --> 00:09:32.200 the one that really cemented his place in 20th 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.320 century art history, came in 1924 when he formally 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:37.840 joined the burgeoning Surrealist group. And his 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.200 existing poetic and deeply symbolic nature made 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:43.840 him an instant perfect fit for them. Oh, absolutely. 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:47.419 They championed this idea of dreamlike automatism 00:09:47.419 --> 00:09:50.039 creating art without conscious thought, you know, 00:09:50.059 --> 00:09:52.779 like automatic writing to unlock the subconscious 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:57.110 mind. And Andre Breton, the often dictatorial 00:09:57.110 --> 00:09:59.370 founder of the surrealist movement, would later 00:09:59.370 --> 00:10:02.289 describe Miro as the most surrealist of us all. 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:05.419 He did. Despite the fact that Miro himself was 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:07.940 always reluctant to maintain official, strict 00:10:07.940 --> 00:10:11.220 membership in any group, he prioritized his freedom 00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:14.019 to experiment over, you know, adhering to some 00:10:14.019 --> 00:10:16.259 dogma. And it was during this explosive early 00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:18.980 surrealist period that he was intensely channeling 00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:21.299 his lifelong psychological struggles into his 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:24.059 art. Right. We know that Miro battled episodic, 00:10:24.059 --> 00:10:26.220 serious depression throughout his life. We mentioned 00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:28.759 the 1911 nervous breakdown. But even as early 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.019 as that year, he was so affected that he was 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:33.419 bedridden for. three months, totally unable to 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.519 function. He fundamentally used painting as a 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:38.340 necessary form of coping, a literal way of keeping 00:10:38.340 --> 00:10:41.860 the darkness at bay. He said it himself. He openly 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:43.940 stated that without painting, he became very 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:47.159 depressed, gloomy, and I get black ideas, and 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:48.259 that he wouldn't know what to do with himself. 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:51.320 So for Miro, art wasn't a choice or a hobby. 00:10:51.500 --> 00:10:55.330 No, it was essential for mental survival. This 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:58.629 need to create, to escape the black ideas. It 00:10:58.629 --> 00:11:01.490 explains the urgency you feel in his work. This 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:04.110 internal mental state is so profoundly visible 00:11:04.110 --> 00:11:07.529 in his celebrated early surrealist work, Carnival 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:10.629 of the Harlequin. Painted between 1924 and 1925. 00:11:10.870 --> 00:11:13.850 Right. And he explicitly tried to depict the 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:16.490 internal chaos, the frenetic energy and the desperation 00:11:16.490 --> 00:11:19.509 he was experiencing in his own mind while battling 00:11:19.509 --> 00:11:22.559 depression and, well, hunger. It's a riot of 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.200 strange, semi -human figures dancing wildly, 00:11:25.419 --> 00:11:28.279 surrounded by all these symbolic objects. But 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:29.960 if you look closely at that painting, or really 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.240 any major work from this period, you'll find 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.799 a recurring, powerful symbol. The ladder. The 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.039 ladder. It's centrally placed in Carnival, and 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:39.379 it's clearly meant to symbolize the act of escaping 00:11:39.379 --> 00:11:42.759 the chaos, the need for spiritual or mental ascension. 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:46.470 And it's a motif. a visual plea that reappears 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:49.970 in multiple later works. It suggests this persistent 00:11:49.970 --> 00:11:53.409 lifelong search for transcendence or relief from 00:11:53.409 --> 00:11:56.570 inner turmoil. That connection between intense 00:11:56.570 --> 00:11:59.210 creativity and internal struggle is so compelling. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:01.700 The sources connect this to research suggesting 00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:04.480 that creative individuals sometimes have a statistically 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:07.259 higher chance of suffering from mood disorders. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:09.919 Right, or a higher chance of genetically transmitting 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:12.960 such conditions. We have documentation of Miro's 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.639 serious episodic depression, the dark, gloomy 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:18.740 periods, but... But whether he experienced full 00:12:18.740 --> 00:12:22.080 euphoric manic episodes, what we now call bipolar 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:24.639 disorder, that remains uncertain based on the 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.659 sources. But the intense emotional fluctuation, 00:12:27.700 --> 00:12:30.080 the urgency of creation followed by the need 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:32.899 for escape, that's undeniable in his art and 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:35.139 his personal confessions. And this internal urgency 00:12:35.139 --> 00:12:37.379 leads directly to his most radical philosophical 00:12:37.379 --> 00:12:41.519 concept, the anti -painting stance. And his shocking 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.320 declaration of the assassination of painting. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:45.580 This wasn't just a stylistic choice like changing 00:12:45.580 --> 00:12:47.759 from oil to a... This is a profound philosophical 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:51.639 and political statement. It was. Miro began experimenting 00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:55.639 wildly with materials, collage, rope, sand, even 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:58.299 feathers, and rejecting the precious frame of 00:12:58.299 --> 00:13:01.019 traditional painting. He expressed utter contempt 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.320 for conventional methods that he felt exclusively 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:05.779 supported the stagnant conservative bourgeois 00:13:05.779 --> 00:13:08.399 society he loved. The assassination was meant 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:11.000 to upset and destroy the established visual elements 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.440 and the very materials of fine art. Exactly. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:15.740 And this hostility didn't emerge in a vacuum. 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.159 It stems from a violent reaction against art 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:21.059 that had become stayed, commodified, and appropriated 00:13:21.059 --> 00:13:23.580 by the establishment. He specifically targeted 00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:26.539 cubism, which had started as radical, but by 00:13:26.539 --> 00:13:29.200 the 1920s had become academic and marketable. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.639 And he didn't pull any punches. Not at all. He 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:34.360 is famously quoted as saying, I will break their 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.519 guitar. A direct, aggressive reference to Picasso's 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.019 cubist work. It is. He's attacking the popularity 00:13:40.019 --> 00:13:42.019 and the political appropriation of Picasso's 00:13:42.019 --> 00:13:44.779 still lifes with guitars. Miro's viewed the act 00:13:44.779 --> 00:13:47.019 of traditional painting as a kind of moral compromise, 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.860 an artifact destined for a rich man's wall. He 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:53.860 wanted to destroy that system to reveal a truer, 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:56.840 more visceral art beneath. Yet what is so fascinating 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.500 about Miro is the contradiction in this destruction. 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:01.899 Even while preaching this anti -painting philosophy, 00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:05.299 his work rarely became fully non -objective or 00:14:05.299 --> 00:14:08.580 purely abstract. That's the paradox. Even when 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:11.659 he was utilizing the raw, chaotic energy of surrealist 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:14.679 automatic techniques in the 1920s, later analysis 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:16.700 of his work, including his preparatory sketches, 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:19.580 shows that the final result was often the product 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:22.379 of a highly methodical, almost scientific process. 00:14:22.940 --> 00:14:26.080 He maintained a highly symbolic, schematic language. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:28.659 He didn't just throw paint on a canvas. He codified 00:14:28.659 --> 00:14:31.759 reality into signs. Exactly. We see this immediately 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.360 in the works that followed his entry into surrealism, 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.179 like The Tilled Field, which is recognized as 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:40.820 his first true surrealist masterpiece. And the 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:44.059 almost cryptographic Catalan landscape, the hunter, 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.679 both from 1923 to 1924. The hunter is a perfect 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:49.980 example of this systematic symbolism. The shift 00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:52.340 is almost like cryptography, a deeply personal 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:55.279 visual shorthand. He used these highly encoded 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.840 signs, a triangle for the head, curved lines 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:00.519 for a mustache, angular lines for the body. It 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:02.659 wasn't immediately legible to the average viewer. 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:05.500 Not at all. In fact, it was so cryptic and highly 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:08.200 structured that Miro eventually felt compelled 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.299 to provide a precise, literal explanation of 00:15:11.299 --> 00:15:13.700 the signs used. A kind of legend for the painting. 00:15:13.899 --> 00:15:16.740 Yes, which absolutely demonstrates that his so 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:19.720 -called automatic process was still rooted in 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:22.419 an intentional, rigorous, and highly personal 00:15:22.419 --> 00:15:25.340 pictorial language. It's the ultimate intellectual 00:15:25.340 --> 00:15:28.460 paradox. An artist who claims to hate painting, 00:15:28.580 --> 00:15:31.320 but meticulously creates a whole new visual grammar 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:33.539 for it. We also see some interesting... mid -career 00:15:33.539 --> 00:15:35.980 deviations, showing his willingness to collaborate 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.440 and learn. In 1926, he worked with Max Ernst 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:41.879 on designs for the influential ballet impresario 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:44.320 Sergei Diaghilev, which suggests he was always 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.539 looking for ways to push his images off the canvas 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:49.710 and into a more dynamic contextual space. Like 00:15:49.710 --> 00:15:51.070 performance in theater. And then unexpectedly, 00:15:51.269 --> 00:15:54.169 in 1928, he created the Dutch Interior series. 00:15:54.529 --> 00:15:56.730 Which marked a temporary yet stunning return 00:15:56.730 --> 00:15:59.090 to a more representational form, though still 00:15:59.090 --> 00:16:01.590 filtered through his unique lens. And those Dutch 00:16:01.590 --> 00:16:03.830 interiors came about after a trip to Holland 00:16:03.830 --> 00:16:06.210 and were crafted after postcard reproductions 00:16:06.210 --> 00:16:09.350 of works by Dutch Golden Age masters like Sorg 00:16:09.350 --> 00:16:12.169 and Steen. Think about that for a moment. The 00:16:12.169 --> 00:16:14.850 radical anti -painter. The surrealist assassin. 00:16:15.419 --> 00:16:17.940 is finding inspiration not in high art exhibitions, 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:22.000 but in humble, mass -produced postcards. It shows 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.159 that even as he was trying to kill painting, 00:16:24.419 --> 00:16:26.700 he was still keenly interested in art history 00:16:26.700 --> 00:16:29.340 and its visual dialogue, even if he accessed 00:16:29.340 --> 00:16:32.019 it via these humble, almost anti -establishment 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.600 means. It connects his desire to strip art down 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:37.000 to its bare essentials, to eliminate the pretension, 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.879 with a sincere love for the core act of visual 00:16:39.879 --> 00:16:42.700 communication. He was attacking the frame and 00:16:42.700 --> 00:16:45.039 the establishment, not the impulse itself. For 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:47.740 much of the 1920s and early 30s, Miró had managed 00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:50.320 to stay relatively apolitical in his art. He 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:52.679 was focusing instead on personal symbolism and 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.159 that generalized, almost foundational sense of 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.259 Catalan nationalism. Right. His struggle was 00:16:57.259 --> 00:16:59.899 internal and aesthetic. However, the political 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:02.720 reality of Spain, the gathering storm clouds 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.640 of civil war, could not be avoided forever. The 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:08.299 Spanish Civil War forced his hand. It marked 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:11.579 a distinct, painful turn toward explicit political 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:15.019 commentary. It did. In 1937, Spain's Republican 00:17:15.019 --> 00:17:17.160 government commissioned him to paint a mural 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:18.759 for their pavilion at the Paris International 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:21.099 Exhibition. The same exhibition where Picasso 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:24.380 unveiled Guernica? The very same. The resulting 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:27.359 work was The Reaper, also known as Catalan Peasant 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:29.880 and Revolt. And this commission was a major shift. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.660 The work depicted a Catalan peasant holding a 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:35.339 sickle, a symbol of defiance, of resistance. 00:17:35.799 --> 00:17:39.019 It's a powerful, angry image. It forced Miro 00:17:39.019 --> 00:17:41.680 to inject a clear, politically charged meaning 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:44.579 into his art, something it had previously lacked. 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:47.700 Tragically, the Reaper was later lost or destroyed 00:17:47.700 --> 00:17:50.039 after the exhibition. Which just underscores 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.200 the ephemeral nature of politically charged art 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:54.220 during wartime. And that geopolitical instability 00:17:54.220 --> 00:17:57.660 only got worse. With World War II looming, Nuro 00:17:57.660 --> 00:17:59.660 relocated to Varengeville in Normandy, France, 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:02.240 seeking safety. But the German invasion of France 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.579 made that impossible. Right. In May 1940, as 00:18:05.579 --> 00:18:08.140 the Germans invaded Paris, he narrowly fled back 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:10.619 to Spain. Which was now controlled by the authoritarian 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:13.299 regime of Francisco Franco. So he's escaping 00:18:13.299 --> 00:18:16.650 one chaos, the Blitz and invasion. only to return 00:18:16.650 --> 00:18:19.750 to a regime that had previously actively persecuted 00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:22.430 his cultural identity and suppressed Catalan 00:18:22.430 --> 00:18:24.869 language and symbols. Out of one fire and into 00:18:24.869 --> 00:18:27.089 another. Exactly. And it was during this period 00:18:27.089 --> 00:18:30.470 of exile and return between 1940 and 1941, while 00:18:30.470 --> 00:18:33.430 he was bouncing between Varengeville, Palma, 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.569 and his beloved Mont -Roy. That he created one 00:18:36.569 --> 00:18:39.269 of his most profound and transformative series, 00:18:39.650 --> 00:18:43.809 the 23 gauches known as the Constellations. The 00:18:43.809 --> 00:18:46.279 Constellations are breathtaking. A necessary 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:49.619 mental escape from the dark reality of war. They're 00:18:49.619 --> 00:18:52.119 small in scale, but absolutely massive in concept, 00:18:52.339 --> 00:18:55.019 revolving around complex celestial symbolism. 00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:57.859 This was a true spiritual shift toward the cosmic 00:18:57.859 --> 00:19:01.079 turn in his work. It was. These works, made during 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:03.180 the darkest period of European history, earned 00:19:03.180 --> 00:19:05.900 massive praise, including from Andre Brittain, 00:19:05.980 --> 00:19:08.539 who was so inspired by their escapism that he 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:10.359 later wrote a series of poems named specifically 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:12.980 after Miro's series. It's fascinating how the 00:19:12.980 --> 00:19:15.539 darkness forced him to look upward. Remember 00:19:15.539 --> 00:19:18.119 the ladder in Carnival of the Harlequin? The 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:21.039 symbol of escaping internal chaos. No, the ladder 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:23.740 has become the entire sky. The internal psychological 00:19:23.740 --> 00:19:27.220 crisis of the 20s transformed into this cosmic, 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:30.319 universal search for order and beauty in the 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:33.039 face of political collapse. And this series firmly 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:35.440 established a new iconography that would dominate 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.880 the rest of his career. The chaotic Harlequin 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.940 figures largely subsided, and they were replaced 00:19:41.940 --> 00:19:44.920 by the subjects of women, birds, and the moon. 00:19:45.099 --> 00:19:47.799 These celestial organic elements became his primary 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:50.240 symbolic language, representing a more hopeful, 00:19:50.279 --> 00:19:53.000 universal connection. They offered the viewer, 00:19:53.140 --> 00:19:55.480 and Miro himself, a place to hide from the turmoil 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:58.140 of Earth. Meanwhile, his reputation in the United 00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:00.400 States was being solidified partially thanks 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:02.779 to the war, which drew attention away from Europe. 00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:05.500 And this was largely facilitated by Pierre Matisse, 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:07.759 the son of Henri Matisse, who opened a gallery 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:11.029 in New York City in 1931. Yes. Matisse frequently 00:20:11.029 --> 00:20:13.710 exhibited Miro's work and introduced him extensively 00:20:13.710 --> 00:20:16.269 to the U .S. market, which proved incredibly 00:20:16.269 --> 00:20:18.750 influential for the American avant -garde, particularly 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:20.890 those artists who were looking for a way past 00:20:20.890 --> 00:20:23.809 European cubism and into abstraction. And his 00:20:23.809 --> 00:20:26.089 recognition grew steadily throughout the latter 00:20:26.089 --> 00:20:30.250 half of his life. It did. In 1954, he won the 00:20:30.250 --> 00:20:32.750 prestigious Venice Biennale Grand Prize for graphic 00:20:32.750 --> 00:20:35.890 work. Four years later, he was awarded the Guggenheim 00:20:35.890 --> 00:20:39.750 International Award. And finally, in 1979, the 00:20:39.750 --> 00:20:42.089 University of Barcelona recognized him with a 00:20:42.089 --> 00:20:45.490 doctorate honoris causa. It shows a tremendous 00:20:45.490 --> 00:20:48.630 trajectory, from his first exhibition being defaced 00:20:48.630 --> 00:20:51.450 and ridiculed by the public, to receiving Spain's 00:20:51.450 --> 00:20:54.369 highest academic recognition as a living master. 00:20:54.829 --> 00:20:57.170 Now, despite his deep background in painting 00:20:57.170 --> 00:21:00.250 and lithography, the final decades of Miro's 00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:03.109 life saw this explosion of activity outside the 00:21:03.109 --> 00:21:05.490 two -dimensional canvas. Yes. He accelerated 00:21:05.490 --> 00:21:08.069 his work across different media, producing literally 00:21:08.069 --> 00:21:10.589 hundreds of ceramics and sculptures. This wasn't 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:13.230 retirement. It was a new phase of radical experimentation. 00:21:13.690 --> 00:21:16.009 And crucially, he wasn't just dabbling in different 00:21:16.009 --> 00:21:18.829 materials. He was pursuing a theoretical goal 00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:20.910 that stemmed directly from his assassination 00:21:20.910 --> 00:21:24.119 mission. Right. Miro had proposed what he called 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:27.289 four -dimensional painting. He theorized that 00:21:27.289 --> 00:21:29.549 this was a type of art that would transcend the 00:21:29.549 --> 00:21:31.809 flatness of painting and even the three -dimensionality 00:21:31.809 --> 00:21:34.450 of sculpture, pushing into an unknown conceptual 00:21:34.450 --> 00:21:38.430 space -time, motion, or pure idea. That need 00:21:38.430 --> 00:21:41.269 to break boundaries to escape the physical limitations 00:21:41.269 --> 00:21:43.750 of the canvas and the pedestal is completely 00:21:43.750 --> 00:21:46.630 in line with his desire to assassinate conventional 00:21:46.630 --> 00:21:49.470 painting. Exactly. If painting represents flat 00:21:49.470 --> 00:21:52.230 permanence, he wanted art that could exist beyond 00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:54.750 simple physicality. And his public installations 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.190 from this period are monumental. They showcase 00:21:57.190 --> 00:21:59.829 his transition from canvas master to multimedia 00:21:59.829 --> 00:22:02.670 architect. Perhaps most famously, he created 00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:04.170 the Wall of the Moon and the Wall of the Sun 00:22:04.170 --> 00:22:06.710 at the UNESCO building in Paris between 1955 00:22:06.710 --> 00:22:10.210 and 1958. These were massive ceramic commissions, 00:22:10.470 --> 00:22:13.990 huge textured walls, showing his complete fluency 00:22:13.990 --> 00:22:16.230 in a medium he had only trained in briefly as 00:22:16.230 --> 00:22:18.630 a youth. He also fully embraced public sculpture, 00:22:18.809 --> 00:22:22.400 often mixing found objects and media. In 1964, 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.900 he completed a series of sculptures and ceramics 00:22:24.900 --> 00:22:27.000 for the Garden of the Mate Foundation in Saint 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.200 -Paul -de -Vence, France. He turned the landscape 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:32.480 itself into a Miro environment. A decade and 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.859 a half later, in 1981, his large mixed media 00:22:35.859 --> 00:22:37.900 sculpture, initially called The Sun, the Moon, 00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:41.019 and One Star, was unveiled in the downtown loop 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:44.039 area of Chicago. It was later renamed Miro Chicago, 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:46.900 and in a wonderful piece of historical context, 00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:49.319 it is situated directly across the street from 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:52.450 the famous Chicago Picasso. So Miro, the man 00:22:52.450 --> 00:22:55.210 who once vowed to break their guitar, was now 00:22:55.210 --> 00:22:57.849 literally facing down the other Catalan master 00:22:57.849 --> 00:23:00.470 on an international stage, having moved beyond 00:23:00.470 --> 00:23:03.210 the very art form he sought to destroy. And for 00:23:03.210 --> 00:23:05.789 those tracking his physical legacy, the bronze 00:23:05.789 --> 00:23:08.750 model of that major Chicago work resides in the 00:23:08.750 --> 00:23:11.250 Milwaukee Art Museum. showing the meticulous 00:23:11.250 --> 00:23:13.829 process behind even his most playful large -scale 00:23:13.829 --> 00:23:16.410 sculptures. The sources also reveal a fascinating 00:23:16.410 --> 00:23:18.930 and deeply personal collaboration regarding his 00:23:18.930 --> 00:23:21.450 textile work. He initially refused to create 00:23:21.450 --> 00:23:23.450 tapestries. Yeah, he dismissed the medium as 00:23:23.450 --> 00:23:26.089 craft, not high art, but he was eventually persuaded 00:23:26.089 --> 00:23:28.509 to learn the craft from fellow Catalan artist 00:23:28.509 --> 00:23:31.390 and weaver, Joseph Royo. And it became this fruitful 00:23:31.390 --> 00:23:34.109 partnership that added a new physical texture 00:23:34.109 --> 00:23:37.029 to his otherwise cosmic forms. The most famous 00:23:37.029 --> 00:23:39.670 and perhaps most tragic outcome of this collaboration 00:23:39.670 --> 00:23:42.630 was the World Trade Center tapestry. completed 00:23:42.630 --> 00:23:47.009 in 1974. Miro and Royo produced several massive 00:23:47.009 --> 00:23:49.390 works together, but this particular tapestry 00:23:49.390 --> 00:23:51.490 was displayed in the World Trade Center complex, 00:23:51.809 --> 00:23:54.750 a potent symbol of American commerce and modernity, 00:23:54.829 --> 00:23:57.670 and tragically became one of the most expensive 00:23:57.670 --> 00:23:59.930 works of art lost during the September 11 attacks. 00:24:00.329 --> 00:24:04.089 It's a profound, ephemeral link between Miro's 00:24:04.089 --> 00:24:06.690 dedication to pushing boundaries and a major 00:24:06.690 --> 00:24:09.529 moment in modern history. The artist who wanted 00:24:09.529 --> 00:24:12.599 to destroy the permanence of painting left behind 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:15.319 a major work that was itself destroyed by global 00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.180 chaos. It's an almost perfect, tragic, artistic 00:24:18.180 --> 00:24:20.720 footnote to his career. They also finished another 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:23.440 major tapestry in 1977 for the National Gallery 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.900 of Art in Washington, D .C. It just showcases 00:24:25.900 --> 00:24:28.500 how, even in his 80s, Miro was still learning, 00:24:28.579 --> 00:24:31.180 collaborating, and pushing into new, massive 00:24:31.180 --> 00:24:33.900 -scale forms, constantly searching for that higher 00:24:33.900 --> 00:24:36.680 plane. And this expansion of media relates directly 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:39.019 back to his philosophical core, which was so 00:24:39.019 --> 00:24:41.769 often inspired by nature and the cosmos the subject 00:24:41.769 --> 00:24:43.990 of his constellations. Miro once spoke about 00:24:43.990 --> 00:24:46.170 being utterly overwhelmed by the sky and the 00:24:46.170 --> 00:24:50.440 landscape. He said, In my pictures, tiny forms 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.880 in huge empty spaces, empty spaces, empty horizons, 00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:56.700 empty planes, everything which is bare has always 00:24:56.700 --> 00:24:58.680 greatly impressed me. What's utterly fascinating 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.779 here is that this vision, tiny charged forms 00:25:01.779 --> 00:25:04.940 floating in huge empty spaces is exactly what 00:25:04.940 --> 00:25:07.119 we see in his later compositions, whether painted 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:10.680 or sculpted. It is. His embrace of massive canvases 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:13.119 and large public works allowed him to express 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:16.279 that overwhelming sense of cosmic scale where 00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:19.049 small, intensely charged. symbols float on vast, 00:25:19.230 --> 00:25:21.589 bare fields of color. Effectively linking his 00:25:21.589 --> 00:25:23.910 deep, lifelong introspection back to the physical 00:25:23.910 --> 00:25:26.910 universe. It's the ultimate escape from the internal 00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:29.369 chaos of depression and the external chaos of 00:25:29.369 --> 00:25:32.430 war. Miro's influence extends far beyond Catalonia 00:25:32.430 --> 00:25:35.109 and Paris. His personal surrealist style, particularly 00:25:35.109 --> 00:25:37.410 his blend of structured automatism and the lyrical 00:25:37.410 --> 00:25:40.130 extractions of the 1940s, was absolutely critical 00:25:40.130 --> 00:25:42.789 in shaping post -war American art. He was a primary 00:25:42.789 --> 00:25:44.890 source of inspiration for the American abstract 00:25:44.890 --> 00:25:48.130 expressionists. We see his imprint clearly on 00:25:48.130 --> 00:25:50.650 artists like Robert Motherwell, Alexander Calder, 00:25:50.789 --> 00:25:54.490 Arshile Gorky, even Jackson Pollock. Oh, and 00:25:54.490 --> 00:25:57.299 Mark Rothko. Roberto Mata. The list goes on. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:00.200 And we can detail how that influence manifested 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:02.920 for you. For the action painters like Pollock, 00:26:02.980 --> 00:26:06.119 Miro's dedication to surrealist automatism, that 00:26:06.119 --> 00:26:08.420 idea of letting the subconscious guide the hand. 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:11.099 It provided a key theoretical and procedural 00:26:11.099 --> 00:26:13.950 pathway. It did. It led directly to drip and 00:26:13.950 --> 00:26:16.369 action painting techniques. He gave them permission 00:26:16.369 --> 00:26:18.450 to abandon conscious form. And for the color 00:26:18.450 --> 00:26:21.309 field painters like Rothko or Alitsky or Louis, 00:26:21.509 --> 00:26:23.910 Miro's unique approach in the constellations. 00:26:24.049 --> 00:26:26.390 Where those tiny, charged, biomorphic symbols 00:26:26.390 --> 00:26:29.450 float against vast, luminous fields of color. 00:26:29.609 --> 00:26:32.349 That was a direct precursor to their own explorations 00:26:32.349 --> 00:26:34.730 of color and space. He showed them how to create 00:26:34.730 --> 00:26:37.190 depth and emotional resonance with minimal imagery 00:26:37.190 --> 00:26:39.849 against expansive backgrounds. He essentially 00:26:39.849 --> 00:26:42.509 birthed lyrical abstraction. And his schematic, 00:26:42.690 --> 00:26:45.410 often highly graphic style also had a major impact 00:26:45.410 --> 00:26:48.109 on applied art. It influenced modern designers 00:26:48.109 --> 00:26:50.910 like Paul Rand and Lucien Day. Right. His visual 00:26:50.910 --> 00:26:53.190 language was so clean and compelling that it 00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:55.470 moves quickly out of the fine art world and into 00:26:55.470 --> 00:26:57.849 commercial branding and design fields, proving 00:26:57.849 --> 00:27:00.690 that even his assassination of painting could 00:27:00.690 --> 00:27:03.220 be commercialized decades later. Beyond painting 00:27:03.220 --> 00:27:05.559 and sculpture, Miro created an astonishing amount 00:27:05.559 --> 00:27:08.039 of work in publishing. He's credited with creating 00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:11.579 over 250 illustrated books, known in French as 00:27:11.579 --> 00:27:14.579 livres d 'artistes. Artist books that are works 00:27:14.579 --> 00:27:16.980 of art in themselves, often collaborations with 00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:19.519 poets. And one of the most poignant and emotionally 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.920 charged examples of these literary collaborations 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:25.000 is the posthumous work he did with the French 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.480 surrealist poet Robert Desnault. ou les nouvelles 00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:32.559 hybrides, which translates to the penalties of 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:35.319 hell or the new hybrides. And this collaboration 00:27:35.319 --> 00:27:38.119 had been planned for decades. Moreau and Desnos 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:40.240 had initially intended to collaborate way back 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:43.700 in 1925, but the chaos of the Spanish Civil War 00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:46.759 and World War II derailed those plans. Tragically, 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:48.880 Desnos was imprisoned in concentration camps 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.819 for his bold criticism of the Nazis, and he died 00:27:51.819 --> 00:27:54.519 shortly after his release in 1945. So decades 00:27:54.519 --> 00:27:57.519 later, at the urging of Desnos' widow, Miro finally 00:27:57.519 --> 00:27:59.900 undertook the task of illustrating the poet's 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:02.920 manuscript. He completed the lithographs in 1974. 00:28:03.539 --> 00:28:06.559 The emotional resonance of this act cannot be 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:09.940 overstated. Miro, the lifelong fighter against 00:28:09.940 --> 00:28:12.759 inner and outer chaos, was finally paying homage 00:28:12.759 --> 00:28:15.420 to his lost friend and collaborator who had suffered 00:28:15.420 --> 00:28:17.759 the ultimate fate. of that external political 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:19.880 storm. And the art critics noticed the shift 00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:22.480 in tone. The 25 lithographs he created for this 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:24.420 book were described by one critic as having an 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:27.420 emotional lushness that contrasted sharply with 00:28:27.420 --> 00:28:30.059 the cool surfaces of much of his other graphic 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:33.190 work. The context of Desnos' fate. The concentration 00:28:33.190 --> 00:28:36.150 camp, the loss of life infused Miro's images 00:28:36.150 --> 00:28:39.190 with a layer of profound, elegiac depth that 00:28:39.190 --> 00:28:41.710 transcended his usual playful symbolism. This 00:28:41.710 --> 00:28:44.230 consistent output, critical influence and emotional 00:28:44.230 --> 00:28:47.049 depth led to steady international acclaim. Major 00:28:47.049 --> 00:28:49.190 retrospectives in New York, London and Paris 00:28:49.190 --> 00:28:51.269 took place throughout the 1970s, well before 00:28:51.269 --> 00:28:54.809 his death in 1983. And posthumously, his relevance 00:28:54.809 --> 00:28:57.579 has only grown. with major exhibitions continuing 00:28:57.579 --> 00:29:00.680 into the 21st century, including Miro, the Dutch 00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:03.519 interiors at the Met in 2010, and Joan Miro, 00:29:03.700 --> 00:29:07.019 Birth of the World at MoMA in 2019. His place 00:29:07.019 --> 00:29:09.630 in the canon is absolutely secure. And this acclaim 00:29:09.630 --> 00:29:12.289 translates directly into the art market, which, 00:29:12.430 --> 00:29:14.869 ironically for the man who despised the commodification 00:29:14.869 --> 00:29:17.809 of art, values his work extremely highly. His 00:29:17.809 --> 00:29:19.789 major paintings consistently sell for figures 00:29:19.789 --> 00:29:23.230 between, say, $250 ,000 and the high eight figures. 00:29:23.430 --> 00:29:25.750 The record sales are stunning. They reflect his 00:29:25.750 --> 00:29:28.589 enduring status. In 2008, La Caresse des Etoiles 00:29:28.589 --> 00:29:32.630 from 1938 sold for $17 million. And a few years 00:29:32.630 --> 00:29:34.960 later, in 2012... painting poem which has an 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.579 incredibly long poetic surrealist title from 00:29:37.579 --> 00:29:40.500 1925 fetched 26 .6 million dollars at auction 00:29:40.500 --> 00:29:43.039 and later that same year pencher etoile blue 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:46.640 from 1927 brought in nearly 23 .6 million pounds 00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:48.799 setting a new record for him at the time his 00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:51.660 valuation reflects his dual identity he's recognized 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:53.880 as both a historical pioneer who invented new 00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:56.279 visual languages and an enduring visual force 00:29:56.279 --> 00:29:58.140 whose work still captivates collectors globally 00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:01.900 We've traced Jono's complex, almost bipolar journey 00:30:01.900 --> 00:30:04.859 from a conflicted Barcelona business clerk battling 00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:08.339 internal depression to a global multimedia master. 00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:11.900 We've seen the personal chaos of depression fuel 00:30:11.900 --> 00:30:14.900 his initial surrealist automatism, giving us 00:30:14.900 --> 00:30:17.279 that symbolic ladder of escape and the political 00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:19.779 turmoil of his era force his hand to address 00:30:19.779 --> 00:30:21.880 the outside world with works like The Reaper. 00:30:22.099 --> 00:30:24.880 He remained fiercely Catalan, yet absolutely 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:27.859 radical in his global innovation. He was constantly 00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:29.799 struggling against the accepted norms of his 00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:32.200 craft, which leads us back to his relentless 00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:35.480 pursuit of creation over categorization. And 00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:37.900 he had a famous and profound dislike for art 00:30:37.900 --> 00:30:40.680 critics. Oh, he did. He felt they are more concerned 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:43.480 with being philosophers than anything else, that 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:45.740 they take a preconceived opinion, a structure, 00:30:45.819 --> 00:30:48.759 a jargon, and then force their emaciated philosophical 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.680 systems to wrap around his art. He wanted his 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:54.039 work to speak without being defined by the critics' 00:30:54.099 --> 00:30:58.210 vocabulary. Precisely. Which brings us back finally 00:30:58.210 --> 00:31:01.289 to his drive to break boundaries, to assassinate 00:31:01.289 --> 00:31:04.009 painting, and to push past the limits of conventional 00:31:04.009 --> 00:31:07.369 physical form. We discussed his interest in pushing 00:31:07.369 --> 00:31:09.630 beyond two and three dimensions with sculpture 00:31:09.630 --> 00:31:12.470 and ceramics, pursuing that theoretical idea 00:31:12.470 --> 00:31:14.730 of four dimensional painting. Right. Art that 00:31:14.730 --> 00:31:17.170 incorporates time or concept. But we have to 00:31:17.170 --> 00:31:19.650 spend a moment reflecting on his final, most 00:31:19.650 --> 00:31:23.210 radical and perhaps least known theoretical idea, 00:31:23.450 --> 00:31:26.349 the gas sculpture. Yes. I mean, think about this 00:31:26.349 --> 00:31:28.690 conceptually. What does it truly mean for an 00:31:28.690 --> 00:31:31.809 artist known for creating massive, enduring public 00:31:31.809 --> 00:31:35.150 monuments to propose a form that is made? entirely 00:31:35.150 --> 00:31:38.329 of gas. It is so ephemeral, so fleeting, that 00:31:38.329 --> 00:31:40.670 it essentially ceases to exist the very moment 00:31:40.670 --> 00:31:42.670 it is created and released. It is the ultimate 00:31:42.670 --> 00:31:44.990 conceptual act against the permanence, the longevity, 00:31:45.170 --> 00:31:47.089 and the bourgeois collectability of conventional 00:31:47.089 --> 00:31:50.309 art. If Miro was dedicated to assassinating painting, 00:31:50.690 --> 00:31:53.210 the gas sculpture was the intellectual suicide 00:31:53.210 --> 00:31:56.009 bomber. Leaving behind nothing but the idea itself. 00:31:56.329 --> 00:31:59.289 A beautiful, immediate non -object that fulfills 00:31:59.289 --> 00:32:01.470 his mission perfectly. It's the highest evolution 00:32:01.470 --> 00:32:04.470 of the escape motif. the latter finally reaching 00:32:04.470 --> 00:32:07.289 the celestial void. If the constellations were 00:32:07.289 --> 00:32:09.750 about finding order in the sky, the gas sculpture 00:32:09.750 --> 00:32:12.269 is about dissolving into it. It is the purest 00:32:12.269 --> 00:32:14.609 expression of anti -art, requiring the viewer 00:32:14.609 --> 00:32:17.549 to engage purely with potential, not with a physical 00:32:17.549 --> 00:32:20.119 artifact. A non -object that demands imagination. 00:32:20.460 --> 00:32:23.599 So we ask you, the listener, if you were given 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:26.279 Miro's theoretical framework, the means to push 00:32:26.279 --> 00:32:29.160 art past three dimensions, what would you create 00:32:29.160 --> 00:32:31.480 in four dimensions? Something fleeting, like 00:32:31.480 --> 00:32:34.019 a gas sculpture, something enduring, or something 00:32:34.019 --> 00:32:36.740 that exists only as pure, terrifying potential? 00:32:37.180 --> 00:32:39.059 Think about that until the next deep dive.