Le Dandy (Dupin 492) by Joan Miró

Born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1893, Joan Miro showed a talent for drawing early in life and began studying at the age of seven, which eventually lead him to study at the Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc. His first solo exhibition was at the Dalmau Gallery, where his work was met with harsh criticism and defacement. Influenced by artists abroad engaging in Surrealism, Dadaism, and Cubism, Miro was drawn to Montparnasse in Paris, where many ex-pat artists, musicians, and writers were gathering. While he continued to spend his summers in Catalonia, in 1920 Paris became his home for life. In 1924, Miro joined the Surrealist group. The already symbolic and poetic nature of Miro’s work, as well as the dualities and contradictions inherent to it, fit well within the context of dream-like automatism espoused by the group.