LADDERS AND CONSTELLATIONS

MIRO

Elizabeth Gordon  at Miro Museum in Barcelona      

         photo by Ann Suggs

 Miro is one of many artists that didn't capture my attention in college like some of the rock star artists of the era. I wasn't much enamored with Dali or Picasso or the Surrealist.  Perhaps it was because art history was so boring and taught so poorly.  I am not sure, but memorizing 200 or more slides a week, with a test at the end of the week with 25 or more unknown to place in a style and time period, wasn't my cup of tea.  Yes, I can recognize many art works and artists, but what can I tell you about their lives and what influenced them to paint in their day.  Art history should be taught in a much more interesting and connected way.  I have hear there are programs like that, just not where I attended.  There was once a program on Public Broadcasting called Connections, and it did just that, it connect political, social, environmental and commercial influences on art.  It was fascinating and the way I had wished I had been taught in art history.  
Later as an art teacher I would do more and more research on artist when I was teaching different units for my students.  A double learning took place, one for them, and another for me.  I love learning and I love research, so it was a win-win situation.  
The more I learned about Miro, Picasso, and other artists I had not studied in depth about in school, the more I wanted to know more.

Ann Suggs and Elizabeth Gordon         Barcelona   Gaudi's House

On a trip to Barcelona, I visited Gaudi's architecture that changed the way I viewed the way I thought building must be designed like.  I did not know they could look as if they were melting, and did not have to have hard angles. 

 On the same

trip, I discovered there was Miro's Museum  sitting there on a high hill overlooking the harbor and city. It such a magnificent view and reminded me so much of my home, Tampa.  It is a city on a bay as well.  I thought it would take an hour or two max to see the museum but

, I stayed there all day and left at closing.  I was blown not away by, not only, Miro's art, but also his thinking about art and creativity.

Below is a video from you tube about Juan Miro you may enjoy.

Today a friend sent me this link to a slide show walk through of Miro's museum and work.  I thought I would include that here for you.  Take a walk with Miro, look at his work, listen to his discussion of his artist process.  Look at the time he, Picasso, and Dali lived in, all working in Southern Eastern France and North East Spainish during relatively the same time period  in an area called Catalonia.  Click on this link now for your tour.  

Miro, Picasso, and Dali lived in the same area and painted at similar times.  Miro and Picasso lived through the Spanish Civil War, WWI and WWII.  At different times they fled Catalonia for Paris and then when the Nazi's occupied Paris, back to Spain.  

Guernica by Pablo Picasso                    from google image for educational purposes only

Picasso's Guernica was painted in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil war. 

One of the series of Constellations by Juan Miro  
   from google educational purposes only

 The painting became an iconic statement for peace.  Miro hid in his imagery of his Constellations and Ladders references to war the times.  That is why it is so important to look at all the influences of a given era that art is produced in and what effects the artist.  In some eras it could be the invention of a new art media like acrylic paints, or the extinction of a mollusk that once thrived in Europe, or the inability of flax to grow in England.  

Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere. -Guillaume Apollinaire

Caos by Miro                                             google image

The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?  ~Pablo Picasso

Picasso                            from google image

When we think of the time Picasso and Miro and others painted it makes sense he would feel this way.  Unrest in Europe, a world war, economic depressions, and suppression of artists.  Miro learned to use a language of symbols and Picasso learned to focus in on cubism and other aspects of art. But as we see in his mural of Guernica he could not always refrain from reacting to the horrible senseless violence around him.

Miro                                  from google image

An Affinity for All Thing Spanish

I love Spain for many reasons. I feel an affinity for all things Spanish.

It is more than likely mixed with my love of Cuba as well. Growing up in Tampa, the Cigar city, I have been influenced by the Spanish, Cuban and Italian peoples that worked in the cigar industry in Ybor City and West Tampa.

For many years I could not tell how to separate the influences. But when I traveled to Cadaques, Figures, and Barcelona I began to understand how each culture effected me. The food at the Columbia Restaurant, Las Novedades and the Valencia all carried Spanish dishes. The Flamenco was performed at many of the restaurants. The Columbia still brings Flamenco dancers from Spain. I loved it, I could travel to another country without leaving home!

One of my childhood memories was of the art at the Las Novedades and the Columbia. El Greco and Goya's work adorned the walls of the Novedades. I loved El Greco's dramatic use of lighting and elongated limbs of his human figures. The Columbia brought in painted tiles to decorate the foyers and seven dinning rooms of the world's largest Spanish restaurant. The Valencia also had wonderful landscape paintings by early Spanish artists. More recently the Dali Museum was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida across the bay. What a wonderful resource to add to the richness of Spanish influence and culture in this area! Visiting Dali's museum in Figures and his home in Cadaques in the Catalan region was a lifetime event. What wonderful artist Spain has produced! Gracias Espana!

MIRO

Miro

One of my favorite artist is Miro. On a trip to Barcelona I visited Miro's Museum high on the top of a hill over looking Barcelona. Up a winding road with towering trees, up the bus went and then at the top is this wonderful museum that overlooks the city and harbor of Barcelona. There are gardens, scupltures outside, and in. There is a cafe and then there is Miro! I thought I knew his work, but I truly did not. I learned so much about his life, who his artist friends were and his philosophy of art. As I listened to the documentary of his life and how he felt about art in his own terms, I became mesmerized! I felt at home, like someone put in words what I had felt all my life.
There is a good bit of the arts teacher left in me that wants to share and educate. I hope you will take the time to go to his museum if you can, it will be a treat to yourself to go. To go to Barcelona at all, is a gift to ones self. In one city you can see the works of Gaudi, Picasso and Miro. If you can not travel physically then go by the internet and visit Miro's Museum and life!

The Calling

The Calling

What is your life calling to you? When all the noise is silenced, the meetings adjourned, the lists laid aside,and the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest, what still pulls on your soul?

In the silence between your heartbeats hides

a summons Do you hear it? Name it, if you must,

or leave it nameless, but why pretend it is not there?_The Terma Collective. The Box: Rembering the Gift

(Gaudi in his elder years still fighting for his calling)

Each one of us has a calling!

Each of these artist heard the calling and answered.

There were people who believed buildings should be square and rectangular, professional who scoffed a Gaudi's vision of architecture. Craftsmen and masons said it was impossible to craft.

Miro, did odd shapes and talked of wonderful theories, he hid symbols and ideas, but the critics may have said it just little shapes, it makes no sense, it is not a pretty picture.

And Dali, what a mad man people thought, how odd are his ideas, flamming giraffes and melting clocks!?

Believe in your calling, no matter what friends, family or critics say...it is your calling not theirs! And what ever your calling is, it is your passion, your being, your experiences, your background, and your expression of yourself-there is not another you out there. Do you have to be a Dali or Gaudi or Miro, no you do not. All you have to do is listen to that small voice inside that says oh I so want to do this. Listen, listen with your heart and give it life!