Le roi guerrier (Warrior King)
Photo Credit

Bursting with color, energy, and movement, Joan Miró’s signature style filled the lower level of Hamilton Building in the Denver Art Museum. It was a gorgeous spring day in Denver when I was lucky to be in town the same day as the opening of the Joan Miró exhibition Instinct and Imagination.

This body of work, which lives in Madrid, Spain at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, was created in the later part of Miró’s life (1963-1981). The exhibition included a selection of his paintings and sculptures.

Miró became more intentional as he developed his career. From his home in Palma, Majorca, he would walk the beach and look for objects that were washed up on shore. He would use these ordinary objects in his bronze sculptures until they developed a new role. A wooden spoon suddenly becomes a scepter in the piece The Warrior King.

Joan Miró
Photo credit

With his paintings, heavy black lines are filled with vibrate primary colors in a sea of white. He was not afraid of wide open spaces with one color. He muse was the female form, the cosmos, and nature.

Miró says, “The painting rises from the brushstrokes as a poem rises from the words. The meaning comes later.”

Miró’s sense of whimsy, magic and joy encourages my own journey, both in my life and in my studio. While I have remained a Miró fan since I first saw his work over 25 years ago, I still find freshness and strength that carries his work.