April 20 - Joan Miró

Catalan artist Joan Miró was born April 20, 1893, in Barcelona. He began drawing classes at age 7 and had his first solo show in 1918. His unconventional works were ridiculed and defaced. He moved to Paris in 1920. Though he experimented with many art forms, he became known as a Surrealist and was the founder of “automatic drawing,” which permitted the hand to move randomly on the canvas, leaving the artwork to chance, in the belief that this process would reveal the subconscious mind. This was one of Miró’s avenues for breaking free from convention, since he opposed what he considered the use of bourgeois art for propaganda and the promotion of materialism. He referred to his work as the “assassination of painting,” and created “subversive” art not only in painting but also lithography, ceramics, murals, tapestries and sculptures for public spaces. His World Trade Center Tapestry (1974, pictured), which he produced at age 81, was the most expensive artwork lost in the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.