THE MIRÓ COLLECTIONS OF THE FUNDACI~JOAN MIRÓ IN BARCELONA ITS COLLECTION OF SOME SEVEN THOUSAND PIECES, INCLUDING DRAWINGS, SKETCHES, NOTES, ETC. ILLUSTRATING THE MATERIAL OF MIRO'SCREATIVE PROCESS AND CAREFULLY KEPT BY HIM THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, IS WHAT DIFFERENTIATES THE FUNDACI~MIRÓ IN BARCELONA-0PENED IN 1975- AND MAKES IT UNIQUE. CARME ESCUDERO I ANGLESKEEPER AT THE FUNDACI~JOAN MIR~IN BARCELONA CATALONIA 1'OR DE 174 TZUR, 1 967 t was not until the retrospective was one of the reasons that drove Miró ted was not just a monographic mu- and anthological exhibition of to offer the city a considerable part of seum but a dynamic centre open to ar- r1968 at the former Hospital de the work on show, with the condition tistic creation with a special emphasis ia >anta Creu in Barcelona that Joan that it be housed in premises of its own on young artists. Miró, already a painter with an interna- and open to the public. Joan Prats, a Joan Prats and the notary Raimon No- tional reputation, was publicly recog- great friend of Miró and the main driv- guera studied the administrative, legal nized in his own country. The exhibition, ing force behind the anthological exhi- and financia1 aspects of the future an initiative by a group of the artist's bition, played a central part in the be- institution. friends who wanted to pay homage to ginning of this project. It was the beginning of a lengthy pro- the artist on his seventy-fifth birthday, While negotiations were under way cess. On 13 August 1970 Miró signed an was organized by Barcelona City Coun- with the City Council, Miró gradually agreement with the mayor Porcioles, cil. It was enormously successful and developed the idea, until what he wan- whereby the artist donated an irnpor- 1 'AMPOLLA M VI, 1 924 tant collection of work to the city of opening took place on 18 June 1976. by the Joan Prats collection of paintings Barcelona on condition that it be Over the years, while Miró's original which Miró donated in 1972 in memory housed in a Museum and Study Centre plans have been respected, what has of the person who did so much for the for Contemporary Art. come to characterize the Foundation Foundation and who died in 1970 be- On 12 May 197 1 Miró set up the Fun- and make it so important are the works fore his dream of seeing the project com- dació Joan Miró, Centre d'Estudis by Miró which make up its main collec- pleted could come true. This small, but d'Art Contemporani, run by a Trust tion and which differentiate it from any representative collection, bearing in with the purpose of "permanently exhi- other centre of its kind. Almost al1 the mind the gap it fills, is made up mainly biting works by Joan Miró and other collection of works by Miró belonging of works previous to Miró's visit to contemporary artists and organising to the Foundation was donated by the Paris, from 19 17 to 19 19, and of works temporary exhibitions of works by an- artist himself. To the initial donation to from the twenties and thirties. cient and modern artists". the city of Barcelona of works from the As a special complement to the Founda- On 10 May 1972, an agreement was anthological exhibition of 1968 must be tion's collection are the paintings lent signed between the Barcelona City added later donations. on deposit by Pilar Juncosa de Miró when Council and the Fundació Joan Miró in The collection of paintings, which in- it was set up. These consist of 38 works, which the site for the Foundation was cludes some on paper and today ex- of which items from the twenties, thir- established in the Montjuic Park, in a ceeds two hundred pieces, consists ties, forties and fifties stand out. building by Josep Lluís Sert comprising mainly of work from the sixties and Later on, in 1984, the artist's widow two sections: the Museu Miró, "to be seventies, the same period as the dona- donated this collection to the Founda- the permanent and exclusive home of tions, when Miró was already recog- tion, keeping the nucleus of works from the works donated by the artist and his nized as one of the great artists of the before the sixties for the Miró family, wife, and any others that may subse- twentieth century and the most impor- who have decided to respect the origi- quently be presented to and accepted by tant of his earlier works were already to nal wish to leave the works on deposit. the Trust", and a Study Centre "on be found in leading museums and Two important items in the collection, which premises will be held other exhi- collections around the world. These Cargol, dona, flor, este1 (1934) and Li- bitions and other events of an artistic are generally large-format paintings b2l.lula d'ales vermelles a l'encalq d'una nature ...". in which the already mature artist seeks serp que llisca en espiral cap a l'estel The Foundation was set up and legally to attain the maximum intensity with cometa ( 195 1), were donated by Pilar registered on 27 June 1972 and opened the minimum of means. Juncosa to the Museo del Prado in its doors on 10 June 1975. The official Miró's early periods are partly covered 1986. DONA 1 OCnl A PUNTA DE DlA, 1946 L 'ESTU MAJINAL (CONSTEL.IAC/ONSSERIES], 1 940- 194 1 Another important donation was made tures, comprising some 156 pieces, con- graving, bibliophile book or poster, in 1989 by David FernAndez Miró, the sists principally of bronzes, most of apart from the different states, proofs, artist's grandson, consisting of the which are cast in the "cire perdue" tech- artist's proofs, models or prints there works left to him, Composició amb per- nique. There are two main periods in may be of the work. sonatges al bosc incendiat ( 19 3 1) and their production: the first sculptures, From this collection of work one can. Pintura damunt masonite (1936). produced between 1946 and 1949, and see that Miró, who never tired of expe- Since then Pilar Juncosa de Miró has those produced after 1966, when Miró rimenting in the field of printing, continued to make donations, of which started to work regularly with bronze. worked with a wide variety of tech- one of the most outstanding is L'estel As well as these bronzes, the Founda- niques: dry-point, chisel, etching, sugar matinal (1940), one of the Constel.la- tion's collection also includes a small process, soft varnish, aquatint, carbor- cions series. number of sculptures consisting of dif- undum, lithography, "pochoir", wood Other donations have also helped to en- ferent objects put together, such as the engraving, and so on. rich the Foundation's collection of four projects for a monument, dating In the field of lithography, one of the paintings: Composició (1927), donated from 1954; the sculpture Ocell solar most important works is the complete by Mane1 de Muga, Dona (1 974), dona- (1968), in Carrara marble, donated by set of the Serie Barcelona, a series of ted by Josep Lluís Sert, and Composició Marguerite and Aimé Maeght; the diffe- fifty lithographic prints started in 1939 ( 198 l), donated by Francesc Farreras. rent models for monumental public and published in 1944, which had an The Foundation's limited financia1 re- sculptures: Lluna, sol i una estrella edition of only five copies and two sources do not allow it a programme of (1968), in bronze and cement, donated artist's proofs of each lithograph. purchases. The purchase of the water- by Pierre Matisse; Couple d'amoureux The Foundation's collection also in- colour Dona amb cape11 bonic (1960) at aux jeux defleurs d'amandier (1975), a cludes copper and zinc plates and wood an auction in 1987 can therefore be model in synthetic resin for the sculp- blocks used by Miró in printing his considered an exceptional case. Also ex- tural group in the Paris district of La Dé- work. While not strictly artistic mat- ceptional was the exchange in 1988 of fense, and Dona i Ocell(198 l), a model erial, it does have documentary value. six paintings from 1978 for the works in plaster for the sculpture in the Placa From his later work in tapestry, which Pintura (el guant blanc) (1 925) and Sen- Joan Miró in Barcelona. Miró took up in 1972 in collaboration se tito1 (Arbre en el vent) (1929), which The Foundation also owns the virtually with Josep Royo, the Foundation has have increased the small but important complete collection of graphic work. As four Sobreteixims, pieces halfway be- collection of work from the twenties. a general rule, the Foundation keeps tween tapestry, collage and painting, and The Foundation's collection of sculp- two final copies of each lithograph, en- four of his "Sacks", as well as the large CCULPTURE ROOM AT THE RINWIÓ JOAN MIROIN BARCELONA tapestry from 1979, which is perma- supports, from notebooks to pages from are those of the Gerald Cramer legacy, nently exhibited at the Foundation and calendars or address books, metro recently acquired by the Foundation; of which the preliminary drawing has tickets, newspaper, toilet paper, postcards, the drawings of the series Minotaure, also been preserved. etc. Luckily, Miró never discriminated from 1933; the collection of preparatory The ceramic work is less represented in when it came to keeping al1 this mat- collages for the series Pintures, from the Foundation's collections: a stele erial, and thanks to this we can follow his 1933, or the drawings he did in 1937 at made in 1956 in collaboration with artistic development from his begin- the Grande Chaumikre in Paris.