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 Miro, Joan Biography(1893-1983)
 Catalan artist, one of the foremost exponents of abstract art and Surrealist 
fantasy.Miro was born April 20, 1893, in Barcelona and studied at the Barcelona 
School of Fine Arts and the Academia Galí. Miro’s work before 1920 shows 
wide-ranging influences, including the bright colors of the fauves, the broken 
forms of cubism. Miro moved to Paris in 1920, where, under the influence of 
surrealist poets and writers, he evolved his mature style. Miro drew on memory, 
fantasy, and the irrational to create works of art that are visual analogues of 
surrealist poetry. These dreamlike visions, such as Harlequin's Carnival or 
Dutch Interior, often have a whimsical or humorous quality, containing images of 
playfully distorted animal forms, twisted organic shapes, and odd geometric 
constructions. The forms of his oil paintings are organized against flat neutral 
backgrounds and are painted in a limited range of bright colors, especially 
blue, red, yellow, green, and black. Amorphous amoebic shapes alternate with 
sharply drawn lines, spots, and curlicues, all positioned on the canvas with 
seeming nonchalance. Miro later produced highly generalized, ethereal works in 
which his organic forms and figures are reduced to abstract spots, lines and 
bursts of colors. Joan Miro’s famous oil paintings include: 
	Le Vol D'Oiseau sur la Plaine IPrades, the VillageThe FarmThe Tilled FieldHarlequin's CarnivalPerson Throwing a Stone at a BirdDutch Interior IStill Life with Old ShoeA Dew Drop Falling |