14 September - 23 February 2025
The exhibition will feature approximately 80 works by the Catalan artist Joan Miró, including paintings, temperas, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics, as well as graphic works, books, and documents. The exhibition itinerary will be enriched by a photographic section and videos showcasing both the private and public life of the master of European Surrealism. The exhibition will offer visitors a journey through Miró’s creative world, highlighting his joy of living and the playful aspect of art.
The exhibition “Joan Miró, the Dream Builder” is a must-see event in Rome, dedicated to one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Joan Miró is famous for his ability to create a revolutionary visual language, characterized by extraordinary freedom of color and an ever-evolving style. The Roman exhibition is an anthological journey through painting, graphics, sculpture, and ceramics, revealing the multifaceted essence of an artist who built new worlds where dreams and creative freedom reign.
The exhibition provides a comprehensive view of Miró’s artistic career, from his early works to his later pieces. The wide range of works on display – including paintings, sculptures, graphic works, and ceramics – allows visitors to appreciate the variety of expressive mediums he used throughout his life.
The exhibition highlights how Miró continuously experimented with new languages and techniques, showcasing incredible versatility. From his early Fauvist and Cubist-influenced paintings to his iconic works defining his unique, recognizable style, the exhibition is a journey into Miró’s poetic artistry. Each room narrates a chapter of the artist’s quest for increasing expressive freedom.
The artworks displayed, covering the years 1937 to 1981, are divided into eight thematic areas: Lithographs, Posters, Poetry, Ceramics, Derrière le Miroir, Painting, Music, and Miró. Of particular note is his collaboration with the renowned magazine Derrière le Miroir, published by the legendary Galerie Maeght, where he created masterpieces of graphic art.
Joan Miró is known for revolutionizing the art world with an unprecedented language in which simple forms, symbolic signs, and vivid colors merge to create evocative and powerful works. His art is an expression of absolute freedom, breaking free from traditional conventions to explore visionary territories. His approach combines abstraction and surrealism, two movements that significantly influenced 20th-century art.
Miró developed a personal visual vocabulary capable of representing the unconscious and dreams, creating a universe populated by imaginary creatures and geometric figures. His works are journeys of freedom that captivate and invite viewers to explore without limits, beyond visible appearances.
One of the most distinctive elements of Miró’s style is his use of color, employed with a freedom that reveals a childlike joy. For the Catalan artist, color is never merely decorative; it becomes a tool of expressive power, capable of communicating deep sensations and emotions. Vibrant tones, such as intense blue, fiery red, and sunny yellow, fill his canvases, creating dynamic, striking contrasts. The exhibition in Rome offers an opportunity to immerse oneself in this chromatic universe, exploring the many shades that characterize the master’s production.
The painting section of the exhibition represents its core, showcasing some of Miró’s most iconic masterpieces. Works like “Bird in the Night” or “Constellations” provide a privileged look into the artist’s creative process, where abstract forms and symbolic signs intertwine to tell imaginary and dreamlike dimensions. The exhibition also includes a significant collection of graphic works, emphasizing the fundamental role of drawing in Miró’s practice. Through his engravings and lithographs, the artist explores the ability to replicate his message, spreading his symbolic language to a broader audience.
A lesser-known but equally fascinating aspect of Miró’s work is represented by his sculptures and ceramics. These works reveal a new dimension of the artist, capable of translating his vision into three dimensions. The sculptures on display are made from various materials, often reclaimed and assembled, showcasing his love for experimentation and creating art from everyday objects.
The ceramics, created in collaboration with artist and friend Josep Llorens Artigas, carry the tradition of Mediterranean culture reinterpreted in a modern key. Through his manipulation of materials, he creates objects that seem to come directly from the dream world, giving them an almost ethereal lightness.
Miró is closely associated with the Surrealist movement, while maintaining an independent position. Influenced by Surrealist poetry, he uses dreams as a vehicle to free creativity from rational logic, giving space to the unconscious and the irrational. His art reflects a dreamlike dimension that mirrors a desire to transcend the limits imposed by traditional society and culture. However, his approach is uniquely light, devoid of the darkness sometimes found in other Surrealist artists.
During a period marked by historical upheavals, wars, and social changes, Miró offers an alternative to reality, a poetic refuge to find the freedom to be and create. The exhibition in Rome emphasizes this aspect, showing how his works were influenced by historical contexts while maintaining their essence of lightness and hope. Works by his friends such as Man Ray, Picasso, and Dalí, along with photographs by Cohen and Bertrand, as well as books and documents by poets like Breton, Éluard, Chair, and Tzara, highlight his strong connections to the cultural context of his time.
Miró’s evolution as a multimedia artist manifests in his experimentation across painting, sculpture, graphics, and ceramics, highlighting his unconventional approach and his relentless desire to break with traditions and academic rules. His art challenges conventions, celebrating boundless creativity and constantly seeking a new visual language.
This is a unique opportunity to admire the greatness of an artist who broke barriers and created a universal language capable of speaking directly to the human soul. The Catalan painter remains a dream builder, transforming the invisible into the visible, giving form to humanity’s deepest desires, and taking us on a journey beyond the limits of reality.
“Joan Miró, the Dream Builder” is not just an exhibition but a dreamlike journey inviting visitors to lose themselves in a world of shapes, colors, symbols, and mysteries. The exhibition rooms are designed to create an immersive environment in the artist’s universe, guiding visitors along a fluid and evocative path. The artworks are arranged to accompany the audience through the themes and stages of his career, from surrealism to radical experimentation.
In this event, Rome transforms into a dreamlike stage where Joan Miró’s art comes alive, inviting visitors to explore their imagination. This exhibition is not only a celebration of a great master but also an invitation to embrace the freedom and creativity within us all.
The exhibition is curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Maïthé Vallès-Bled, and Vincenzo Sanfo.
Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM; Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 AM to 8:30 PM. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
Tickets:
€ 15.00 Full Price (Weekend and Holidays)
€ 13.00 Full Price (Weekdays)
€ 10.00 Reduced (at ticket office only): Youth up to 14 years, Journalists, University Students, Agreements
€ 10.00 Groups (over 10 people)
€ 16.00 Open Ticket (skip the line)
€ 5.00 Schools
Free for children up to 5 years
Special promotion available for visitors who wish to attend the Ligabue exhibition “The Mysteries of a Mind” on the same day. Details at our ticket offices.
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