.Miró - Catalan Landscape, 1924

It is one of the most important works of surrealism.

The Catalan Joan Miro, 1893-1983, remains unclassifiable. He produced more than 2000 oils, 500 sculptures, 400 ceramics and around 8000 drawings!

After contracting typhus, the young Miró had to isolate himself, so he moved to the family farm in Montroig in 1911. He was 18 years old and had been drawing and painting since childhood. It was in Montroig that he became aware of his attachment to the Catalan land which would remain the inexhaustible source of his inspiration.

In 1919 he went to Paris, found a workshop and settled in the capital, the melting pot of the avant-garde. There he met the group of avant-garde painters and writers who advocated the fusion of the everyday rational world with that of dreams and the unconscious in order to produce an absolute reality, or "surreality".

The surrealists advocated automatism, a spontaneous method of working. Miró had already experimented with automatism: “Even a few occasional strokes while cleaning my brush can suggest the beginning of a painting.” Said Miró.

Miró painted the “Catalan Landscape” (or “The Hunter”) in 1923-1924. It is a large canvas, one of his most important works because it marks a decisive stage in the development of his style: the systematic stylization of his forms, each element appearing as a sort of ideogram which takes the place of language.

This painting marks a major turning point in the painter's career. It was a decisive step in the development of his style. The abstract shapes and lines make this painting a masterpiece of surrealism. Miró stands out from the surrealists because his painting is a lyrical and minimalist version of reality. There is not necessarily the desire to transmit a message.