50 years of the Joan Miró Foundation

The Fundació Joan Miró is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary , a half-century of activity that has consolidated the space as a benchmark for contemporary artistic creation and a platform for research, experimentation and dialogue between generations. On June 10, 2025, the Foundation will open its doors to a year full of activities, focused both on the legacy of Joan Miró and on contemporary voices and figures, in order to continue reaffirming its role as a dynamic and open cultural center.

One of the main highlights of the commemoration will be the exhibition 'Interchanges. Miró and the United States', a show that shifts the traditional focus of Miró's work to place the United States as the central axis of his evolution. Organized in collaboration with The Phillips Collection in Washington, this exhibition will offer a selection of approximately 160 works by Miró and other relevant artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko , offering a new perspective on his influence in the context of 20th-century American art.

In parallel, the Foundation will present 'Painting the Sky. 50 Years of Stories of the Miró Foundation', an exhibition that will take a journey through the circumstances and people that led to the creation of the center, with a special focus on Joan Prats , one of the pillars of the creation of the Center for Contemporary Art Studies (CEAC) . This exhibition, which will open the celebrations on the same day as the anniversary, June 10, will offer a multifaceted vision of the history of this cultural project, exploring how the impetus of figures such as Prats, Miró, Sert and the Club 49 group was fundamental for the construction of a cultural space of reference in Barcelona.

'Pintura', Joan Miró (1925). © Successió Miró, 2024.

In addition to these exhibitions, the 2025 program will include three unique exhibitions focused on the Foundation's permanent collection. 'Under the Layers of Miró: A Scientific Investigation' will delve into the universe of pigments used by the artist, while 'Joan Miró: Gallery of Anti-Portraits' will present works from the artist's later period, such as his large-format engravings. Finally, 'Miró: Improvised Media' will offer a look at the variety of materials with which Miró experimented.

The Fundació Joan Miró will have a prominent international presence with the major anthology 'Joan Miró' at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum , which will bring together a hundred works that cover his entire career, from his beginnings in Barcelona to the influence of his stays in Paris, the United States and Japan. This exhibition will be made possible not only thanks to works loaned by the Foundation, but also to loans from various institutions and private collections around the world. The exhibition will include a piece never loaned before: Personatge d'entre el sol, which will be exhibited for the first time outside the Fundació Joan Miró, a fact that highlights the deep bond that the artist established with Eastern culture. Japan was a fundamental source of inspiration for Miró, who, despite dreaming of it, was not able to travel there until 1956, when a major retrospective of his work was held in Tokyo and Kyoto. This contact marked a momentous moment in his career, causing a profound transformation in his creative outlook. Likewise, in 1970 Miró participated in the Universal Exhibition in Osaka, a city that will host a new edition again in 2025.

'Personatge davant el sol', Joan Miró (1968). © Successió Miró, 2024.

The 50th anniversary celebration of the Joan Miró Foundation will also include projects that promote new generations of artists. 'New Talents in Asian Video Art' will present audiovisual works by two emerging artists: Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying and Indonesian artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno . Both works are the result of the Han Nefkens Foundation - Loop Barcelona video art production grant, in collaboration with the Joan Miró Foundation. Musquiqui Chihying explores the dynamics between visual culture and techniques for photographing black people, while Timoteus Anggawan Kusno focuses on jathilan, a traditional Javanese dance that uses music and movement to invoke supernatural forces, thus opening a window to new visual narratives from Asia.

'Reversal', Timoteus Anggawan Kusno (2022)

On the other hand, the Espai 13 cycle, 'com des d'aquí', curated by Carolina Jiménez , will propose a reflection on the link between place and creation through the works of Josu Bilbao, Paula García-Masedo, Ludovica Carbotta and Marwa Arsanios . Finally, as a retrospective of these 50 years, Espai 10 will recover 'Entre dos patis. El pas de Fina Miralles, Susana Solano and Eva Lootz per l'Espai 10', an exhibition that will revisit the samples of three artists who exhibited in the Espai 10 of the Foundation during the 1970s and 1980s.

Exposició 'Arenas', Eva Lootz (1986). © Fons fotogràfic F. Català-Roca - Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya.