Joan Miro :: essays research papers

Working Thesis:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Catalan struggle and Spanish Civil War greatly influenced Joan Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s art; Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s techniques of forceful strokes with paint and ceramics enable Mirà ³ to express his feelings and depict the Catalan people’s struggle through art.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Surrealism in the 1920s was defined as a fantastic arrangement of materials that influenced Mirà ³, due to the fact that he was one of the most original and sympathetic artists during the Surrealism periods. Mirà ³ was born into the Catalan culture in April 20,1893 in Barcelona, Spain (Munro 288). Having to be born into the Catalan culture gave Mirà ³ an opportunity to have an intense nationalist activity. In which much attention was paid not only to political expressions of the need for autonomy, but also to the re-Catalanizing of every day life (Higdon 1). â€Å"It was necessary to fight so that Catalan, our language might be recognized as a cultural language† (â€Å"Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬ ). In 1910 Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s parents bought a masia which is a sort of traditional farmstead of Catalonia, where the family has its roots on the paternal side. Mirà ³ described the masia in his painting The Farm of 1921-1922 (Figure1). Clement Greenburg a close friend of Mirà ³ who is also a critic, said that Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s art is based on ideas â€Å"of painting as an irrevocable two dimensional medium† (Munro 289). Greenburg also stated â€Å"Mirà ³ is known for his almost total lack of interest in political matters† (Munro 289). The only thing that really kept Mirà ³ interested was his people and their culture. What really shot Mirà ³ down was the Spanish Civil War, he stated that â€Å"I am not in favor of separatism. I am in favor for Spanish unity, European unity, and World unity.† He believed that they should be able to celebrate their myths, and abide by their own laws (Higdon 1). Being Catalan was pretty hard on Mirà ³ as well as his people and their culture. For one, the government tried to shut them out or at least make them in to a Spanish-speaking country. Yet the Catalans had to push on their struggle for freedom. Mirà ³ used his paintings to show his urge for unity, and wanted his people to have the right to practice their customs (Munro 288). He was extremely devoted to his people and their aspirations. He wanted to bring out Catalan traditions as well as their language (Higdon 2). Mirà ³ career in art was sort of brought on by destiny.