Seeing Joan Miró with kids.

Never knew I'd enjoy visiting art museum with kids, because of how fast they move and how they stop only for things that grab their attention. I never get to read those detailed background history and descriptions anymore... Yet because of that I became more intuitive about how to appreciate what I see in a whole different way.  Seeing paintings as paintings themselves, not how critics and historians want us to follow about the paintings. I glance, I skim, and I stop where my kids stop.
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Took them to see Joan Miró' s work at the Grand Palais in Paris last week. Kids have a two week break and it was a great show! I took some snapshots and posted them here to share with you what I noticed.

The first batch below shows a few earlier pieces done by Miró .  Like Picasso, he has very strong foundation, and you can also see strong influence from Cubisim, Van Gogh and Cézanne. I didn't get to read the details, it's really that obvious.  He has also demonstrated a very strong sense of composition in a  graphic sense like a trained designer.

Later on, Miró has also experimented with print making, typography in spreads... and how he reduced the amount of details to simple, minimalistic forms and elements that take much more time to position than to create. They look like work done for visual communication, publications, posters.  Some pieces also remind me of Matisse's “cut paper” period. I posted a few of my favorites below. He's good with calligraphy and typography too.

The final batch below are three examples of Miró's work done in his most popular period. Painted in his famous child like, sometimes Dada, surrealistic, expressionistic, and minimalistic visual style.  Amazing and influential work. Regardless of what the critics think, my intuition is that Miró had a keen sense of business. In terms of differentiation and productivity.  Just imagine how many paintings he can produce, with the same amount of time he used to finish just one painting in 1917 :D? Genius!  After all no one should be surprised as he was also a business student while studying art.  

How much do you like Miró? Have you ever been inspired by his work? Whose work do you think I should bring my kids to study next time? hmm...