West Bretton, U.K.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Although Joan Miró was an early pioneer of construction, most of his three-dimensional work was concentrated within the latter part of his life. This exhibition, a collaboration between Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the artist’s family, and foundations, offered a journey through Miró’s fervent imagination, taking viewers from smooth dark bronzes to audacious, brilliantly colored assemblages of found objects, to a throng of theatrical personages set high on plinths. Outside, humanoid forms could be viewed on the lawns, terraces, and peaks, creating a magical, otherworldly experience. Miró held a deep sense of national identity with regard to Catalan affairs, but even when addressing difficult political issues, his work retained an energetic dynamism, celebrating the humble and earth-bound. He cast a wide range of worthless stuff in bronze, believing that people would better understand his work if they could identify with the objects used—cooking pots, food, crushed cans, cutlery, egg cartons, shells, mannequin parts, and misplaced shoes, for instance. …see the entire review in the print version of May’s Sculpture magazine.
