Transcript Art Awareness - White Eagle Elementary School

Joan Miro
(hoh-ahn’ mee-roh’)
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Born in Spain. (1893 – 1983)
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Miro literally means “he looked”.
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Young Joan Miro
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Caricature of Joan Miro
by Ian Davy Brown
He wanted to be an artist from a very
young age.
His father did not agree and made him a
clerk at a wholesale company.
At 17, he became very ill and was sent to
live in the country
Surrounded by beautiful landscape, Miro
regained his joy, his health and his great
desire to paint. His father agreed to let
him become an artist.
He finished art school in 1919.
Afterwards, he met famous artists like
Pablo Picasso.
Joan Miro
(hoh-ahn’ mee-roh’)
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Miro kept his studio in the same
house he was born in for 63 years.
His works started out being
surrealistic, but became more
abstract over time.
Before beginning work, he had to
receive a shock – a simple thing that
could provoke a response.
He used music, literature and nature
as his inspirations.
Earth and sky were very important in
his works.
He lived a rather normal and long
life. He died at the old age of 90 in
1983.
SURREALISM & ABSTRACT
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Miro was known for his “surreal” and
“abstract” pictures.
Surreal means dreamlike distortion
of reality.
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Surrealism: Artwork that is very
dreamlike in appearance.
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These paintings are often filled with
recognizable objects done in strange
and mysterious fashion.
Abstract : This kind of artwork has
objects that are mostly
unrecognizable.
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The Garden
Distort – twist something out of shape.
Abstract paintings rely on color and
shapes.
Miro’s Art Technique
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Miro liked to use bright colors : mostly
black, red, yellow, green and blue
against a neutral earth background
He used symbols in his paintings :
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A man = pipe, or moustache.
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A woman = triangle.
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A tree = round blob.
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Farm woman = large foot.
One of his teachers blindfolded him and
taught him to draw form by using the
sense of touch. He would sometimes do it
by feeling the contours of the head of a
classmate. 
Miro says, “I try to apply colors like words
that shape poems, like notes that shape
music”.
People and Dog in Sun - 1949
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What colors do you see? Are they mainly
primary colors (red, yellow, blue) or
secondary colors (purple, orange, green).
Where is the contrast? (the background
has light colors, not bold like the
foreground).
Describe what you see. Turn the painting
upside down and sideways.
Which way do you like it best ?
Do you see people? Do they look like kids
or adults?
Where is the dog? Where is the sun?
One dot is half red and half black, who
can find it?
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Did Miro have a good imagination?
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What would you title this painting?
Dog Barking at the Moon - 1926
Daybreak- 1968
The Circus Horse - 1927
Head of a Man - 1937
COLLAGE - “Portrait of a Man in a
Late Nineteenth-Century Frame” - 1950
Miro’s Chicago
Miro’s sculpture in Chicago across Daley Center.
Sculpture – 1981
Concrete; bronze, ceramic tile.
Let’s get Inspired…
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Let’s begin to do our art project inspired by
Miro’s artwork.
We do this by taking a line for a walk….
Draw a wide scribble or doodle on the paper
provided with a black marker.
Use your imagination to find people or animals
in the shapes and lines. Find a point where two
lines come together and draw a face.
Turn paper upside down and add another
doodle or scribble.
Add another face to create a second person or
animal in the drawing.
Add color with crayons or markers – only red,
blue, green and yellow.
Does your work look like Miro’s? If time permits,
we’ll talk about what we found and share it
with the class.
Give a title to your artwork
THANK YOU
Have a great day ahead and keep drawing.