Still Life II

1920

Moves to Paris

Inspired by Fauve and Cubist exhibitions, Miró was drawn to the artistic community gathering in Montparnasse and moved to Paris, though he continued to spend his summers in Catalonia.

1920

Meets Picasso

In Paris Miró met Picasso and other artists.

1921

His first solo show in Paris

Josep Dalmau arranged Miró's first Parisian solo exhibition at the Galerie la Licorne.

1924

Joins the Surrealist circle

Miró joined the Surrealist circle, whose dream-like automatism suited his symbolic and poetic art, but chose not to become an official member so as to experiment freely; Breton called him “the most Surrealist of us all”.

1925

Friendship with Robert Desnos

Miró became friends with the poet Robert Desnos; they soon planned a livre d'artiste together, but the Spanish Civil War and World War II put the plans on hold. Desnos died in 1945, shortly after his release from the concentration camps.

second half of the 1920s

A language of signs and ideograms

In “Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird” and “Dog Barking at the Moon” (both 1926) a set of recurrent ideograms took shape: symbols of space — horizon, waves, heavenly bodies — and “mediating symbols” — birds, a ladder to the sky, an eye, an ear, a figure with giant feet.