Joan Miro at YSP

Yet another reason to head quickly to the  Yorkshire Sculpture Park, apart of course from the wonderful Mark Hearld Exhibition I’ve blogged about recently, is the Joan Miro collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures.

This is the first major UK survey of sculpture by Joan Miró (1893-1983) in collaboration with the artist’s foundations and family. With key works sited in the Yorkshire landscape, the exhibition will fulfil the artist’s belief that “sculpture must stand in the open air, in the middle of nature”, as well as providing a rare opportunity to experience the repertoire of this iconic Catalan artist, demonstrating his continued relevance to sculpture. Miró produced around 400 sculptures and a similar number of ceramic works, the majority concentrated within the later part of his career. The artist viewed sculpture as equally important to his practice as painting although it was generally less known and critically examined. From his initial exploration of collage and assembled sculpture around 1930, sculpture became increasingly central, most notably from the 1960s to his death in 1983.

The Park’s purpose-built Underground Gallery hosts Miró’s “phantasmagoric world of living monsters”, tracing the evolution of sculpture as an element of Miró’s practice from 1946 through to 1982. The works relate to the sculptures for the open air shown in the gardens beyond the gallery’s impressive glass concourse. In total there’s about 90 sculptures on show.

A wonderful time of year to visit the park for the wealth of colour too.

Below are some examples of Miro’s paintings (not necessarily works that are featured in this show).

The exhibition is only available now until January 6th 2013 so hurry if you don’t want to miss out !