Joan Miró (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983)

                                                                                                     

Standing Nude

1918

Miró is the best known Surrealist after Dalí (interestingly both were Catalan), though some supposed him to be the best. Personally, his most famous periods, which tended towards Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, are not as interesting to me as his earlier ones. The piece above, which is Fauvist, is absolutely my favorite on this post; I should come clean that I love Fauvism in general, so it tilts my objectivity. As for his Surrealism, I've never heard a better explanation than his; "The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun. There, in my pictures, tiny forms in huge empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains – everything which is bare has always greatly impressed me."

The Tilled Field

1923-1924

Dancer Listening to the Organ Playing in a Gothic Cathedral

1945

The Lane

Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement

1936

Danger

1925

Self-Portrait

1919