Life of Picasso "The relationship between Picasso and Miró".

Both artists met for the first time in Barcelona in 1917, when Picasso went to present the ballet Parade at the great Liceo theater in Barcelona. That moment marked the beginning of a friendship that united them for more than half a century and gave them the opportunity to live transcendental moments in their careers. Later, both separately chose Barcelona to donate their work in the form of monographic art centers.

With a difference of 12 years in their ages, Picasso, already consecrated as an artist in 1917, became a source of admiration for a young Miró who was 24 years old at the time. This relationship spurred the young Miró to advance his own artistic career.

During the Civil War they coincided in Paris as exiles. Their collaboration in the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic in Paris in 1937 resulted in two large-scale works; Picasso with Guernica and Miró with a mural, Payés Catalán en rebeldía, painted directly on the wall and which was destroyed.

In the years of the Second World War they were physically separated. From that moment on, Miró began to work incorporating poetry, music and evasion in his pictorial work. Picasso, on the other hand, tried to portray the grayness of the horror of war and the gloom of Paris.

While Picasso constantly challenged the conventions of 20th-century art and summarized the art history of the time without ever abandoning painting, Miró sought the intensity of the fact, as he expressed to his poet friends in 1924: "I want simply a line or a dot to vibrate."

As part of the Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, the Museu Picasso de Barcelona and the Fundació Joan Miró present MIRÓ-PICASSO, a joint project on view simultaneously at both institutions until February 15, 2024.

Sources :

Miró / Picasso, Museu Picasso Barcelona: Miró-Picasso | Exposición | Museo Picasso

Miró / Picasso, Fundació Joan Miró: Miró-Picasso | Exposiciones | Fundació Joan Miró

Fundació Joan Miró: Exposición Miró-Picasso | Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (youtube.com)

Ficha del Guernica, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía: Pablo Picasso (Pablo Ruiz Picasso) - Guernica