Joan Miro

Joan Miro (1893-1983) was born in Barcelona into a goldsmith and watchmaker family (lucky duck.) In his early years, he had a brief foray into the business world, before a nervous breakdown, encouraged him to reject that world and opt to make nutty figurative paintings. And, that's exactly what he did. And, that's yet another example of how one man's nervous breakdown ultimately benefits all of mankind.

So, in 1920, Joan Miro cakewalked it over to Paris, where he met Picasso, along with Tristan Tzana and Max Jacob and others entangled in the wonderfully ridiculous Dada movement. Miro spent his time mainly either in Paris or Spain. Oh, what a life. I wish I could say the same...

Miro's earlier work was of a surrealistic flava, though, thankfully, his style soon matured into the type of figurative wackiness, which I so much love. His paintings have been said to express, "a vocabulary of pictorial idioms," which strikes me as a felicitous characterization.

Joan Miro is often known for a gouache series he did, known as "Constellations." I mean...what can you even say about a painting like Constellation: Awakening at Dawn? Have a look for yourself. As I said, these were done in gouache, which I use quite a bit myself. I love gouache as it gives you a solidly opaque look, and if you make mistakes with it, it's possible to salvage the whole doo-dad, but, what I'm wondering is why don't my paintings ever turn out anything like this? I had better just continue saying my prayers, and, accept that there will only ever be one Joan Miro, just as there will only ever be one you, and that's indeed a most wonderful aspect of the universe, so, please, to some of the young folks out there, particularly girls, please don't say things like, "Brittany Spears. God, it must be so great to be her." I heard this the other day, and I've heard similar ideas expressed for as long as I can remember. I'm ordering you all to start thinking about how great it is to be YOU!

What I like about a Miro exhibit...it is quite an experience: like submerging yourself in a hitherto unknown cosmos that is not subject to the same gravity or general principles of organic form. The creatures jump out at you...right off the canvas, you may find yourself getting knocked over, like Franco Harris took your knees out from under you, oh yeah...looking at the paintings, I find myself ducking, scratching my head, pondering this Spaniard and what made him tick. Kemal Faruquee.