Joan Miró Lithographs

Joan Miró (1893–1983) was born in Barcelona and studied at Escola de la Llotja there before establishing himself in Paris during the 1920s, where he became associated with the Surrealist movement. Throughout a career spanning more than six decades, he worked in painting, sculpture, ceramics and printmaking, drawing inspiration from dreams, poetry, the Mediterranean landscape and his Catalan heritage.

Miró's compositions are instantly recognisable for their bold black lines, simplified forms and brilliant passages of primary colour. Stars, birds, eyes and fantastical figures are characteristic of his work, suspended within spacious, carefully balanced compositions. Lithography became central to his practice from the 1950s, offering a medium perfectly suited to his expressive handling of colour and line. Working in close collaboration with master printers, Miró exploited the painterly qualities of lithography to produce prints of exceptional vibrancy. His lithographs are not reproductions of paintings but original works conceived for the medium, celebrated for their technical refinement, visual energy and enduring sense of invention.