Road Trip Alert: Miró at Denver Art Museum

Joan Miró, the master 20th century surrealist painter and sculptor, will be the subject of a Denver Art Museum exhibition this spring, the museum announced recently.

Titled “Joan Miró: Instinct & Imagination,” the show focuses on the remarkable inventions of the Spanish artist during the last two decades of his life, starting in the 1960s, with a special emphasis on paintings, sculptures and drawings. During this time, Miró continued the inventive, freely developed forms for which he is known, and began exploring new materials including bronze. The exhibition is a rare opportunity for Colorado audiences to experience a significant collection of Miró’s work.

It includes more than 50 pieces and will be on view March 22 through June 28, 2015.

“Miró’s boundless creativity continued into old age,” said Gwen Chanzit, the museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art. “Our visitors will experience the rich conversations between paintings and sculptures — some of which incorporate found objects, and all of which draw on fantasy and imagination, such as his freely developed forms of women, birds and stars.”

The exhibition has been organized by the Seattle Art Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, featuring more than 50 artworks created between 1963 and 1981, and entirely drawn from the Sofía’s collection. Miró’s sculptures have rarely traveled outside of Europe.

“While Miró has many devotees, we hope new audiences will embrace his whimsical artistic approach and will experience what an incredible impact he had on modern art worldwide,” said Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum. “Miró’s imaginative artwork has appeal for visitors and families of all ages.”

The Front Range show is one of the few stops for the collection in the U.S. The traveling exhibition was previously on view at the Seattle Art Museum in early 2014, and is currently at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina.