MIRO AND THE UNITED STATES: Exhibit at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Woman and Birds at Sunrise, by Joan Miro. Exhibit at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Dream-like figures floating in space, sinuous lines, and all over patterns are a hallmark of the art of the Catalan artist Joan Miro (1893-1983). On my recent visit to the Phillips Collection art museum in Washington, D.C. I saw a fascinating exhibit of Miro’s work—mostly paintings, but also some sculptures—showing how he was influenced by American artists like Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock, and how they in turn were influenced by him.

Left, The First Spark of Day II by Joan Miro. Right, August, Rue Daguerre by Joan Mitchell.

Miro and the United States is co-organized by the Phillips Collection and the Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona, Spain. It will be on view at the Phillips from March 21 to July 5, 2026.

Detail of Somersault, an early Miro work exhibited in the US in 1926 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

The American public first became aware of Miro’s art beginning in the 1920s when it was shown at galleries and in Museum exhibitions in the US. 

Copy of Miro's mural in the Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio.

But Miro’s first visit to the United States was not until 1947 when he came to paint a mural at the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio, a modern new hotel designed by the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. A reproduction of the mural fills one large wall of the exhibit at the Phillips.

Passage of the Divine Bird by Joan Miro.

Another room of the exhibit is devoted to a series of 22 works called Constellations. In every piece we see groups of black dots joined by lines to form shapes similar to those of the Zodiac. Miro began the series when he was living and working in France in 1940. But when the Germans invaded France during WWII he escaped to Spain where he finished the series. The Constellation paintings were exhibited at his gallery in New York in 1945 to great acclaim.

Constellation series by Joan Miro.

Miro’s original Constellation paintings were done in gouache. Then in 1959, the Constellation series was reproduced as limited-edition prints using a stencil technique called couchoir. The works on exhibit are couchoir prints.

Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird, by Joan Miro.

On the day of my visit to the Phillips a class of middle school students was at the exhibit. In each room the teacher gave them an assignment. I overheard her telling the students to choose a painting without looking at the title and create their own title. I wonder what they came up with—it would be hard to beat some of the expressive titles Miro chose for his own work.

The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers by Joan Miro.

During Miro’s visits to the United States he met many artists and also saw their work in various exhibits. In the show at the Phillips we see numerous examples of Miro’s paintings hung side by side with those of other artists, showing similarities in their choice of images and techniques. Information panels explain the connections. Alexander Calder and Miro became friends after meeting in Paris in 1928, and continued to exchange letters and ideas through the rest of their lives. You can see similarities between Miro's thin black lines and the wires that support Calder's sculptures. One critic said, “Calder’s mobiles are like living Miro abstractions.” 

Red Polygons by Alexander Calder is one of two his mobiles in the exhibit.

Jackson Pollack, the American painter famous for his "drip" paintings, also influenced Miro and has several paintings in the exhibit. In 1952, when Miro first saw Jackson Pollock’s paintings in Paris, he said “It freed me.” Some of the other artists influenced by Miro and represented in the exhibit include Joan Mitchell, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Norman Lewis,  Grace Hartigan, Willem de Kooning.

Left, Vigil by Adolph Gottlieb. Right, detail, Eyes in the Heat by Jackson Pollock.

Head by Joan Miro.

A few examples of Miro’s sculptures are included in the exhibit as well as those of several American sculptors—all displaying an imaginative approach to the world and the human figure.

Red Sun by Joan Miro.

In January 2015 I wrote about a visit to another Miro exhibit which was held at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in North Carolina. At the time, the museum also had an exhibit of the art of Robert Rauschenberg. I wrote: “In both exhibits the viewer is asked to consider similar questions—What is art? What is the meaning of art? How do we see? What is my relationship to this piece of art.? In the current exhibit at the Phillips museum, I think one can ask the same questions as one considers Miro’s art and that of the American artists impacted by his work and who influenced him.

After viewing the Miro exhibit, my friend and I enjoyed a tasty lunch in the museum café on the first floor. It is adjacent to the excellent gift shop. Both the café and gift shop are open to the public, although one needs to buy a ticket to visit the galleries. I always enjoy visiting the Phillips Collection when I am in Washington, DC. Here are links to posts about previous visits.

May 19, 2019  THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, D.C., Part 1: America's First Museum of Modern Art

March 9, 2020  THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, D.C., Part 2:  What Do You Hang Over the Fireplace?

October 21, 2024   A TREASURE HOUSE OF MODERN ART, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 

October 28, 2024   WHAT TO HANG OVER THE FIREPLACE, A Visit to the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

PRESIDENTS, SPORTS HEROES and Much Much More at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Abraham Lincoln, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

My visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, was on February 12^th, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so, of course, my first stop was in the gallery of American Presidents. Lincoln is depicted life size, standing in his office at the White House. The guide at the Visitors' Desk in the lobby told me that when Mary Todd Lincoln first saw the painting she thought he looked so real that he was still alive.

The National Portrait Gallery shares a building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). (See my post of June 10, 2024.) Each of the four floors of the museum has galleries for both museums. During my visit I zigzagged between them before returning to the courtyard on the first level.

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O'Conner, Ruth Bader Ginsberg 

A visit to the Portrait Gallery is a walk through American history, beginning on the first floor with portraits from 1600 to 1900. In the American Presidents gallery on the second floor George Washington greets visitors at the entrance, looking very much the Father of our Country.

American Presidents Gallery. George Washington at entrance.

Paintings of other Presidents vary considerably in size and style—each President choosing his own portraitist. Some of the paintings are in a traditional portrait style...

Bill Clinton, painting by Chuck Close

...while others, like those of John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, are depicted larger than life and in a more contemporary style.

John Kennedy, painting by Elaine de Kooning

Barack Obama, painting by Kehinde Wiley

Adjacent to the President's Gallery is a gallery dedicated to The Struggle for Justice, beginning with a large painting of Congressman John Lewis. 

Congressman John Lewis, painting by Michael Shane Neal

Other figures in the gallery include singer Marian Anderson, activist and journalist Charlayne Hunter Gault, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt Administration, and Minaru Yasui, civil rights attorney who fought for Japanese American rights during and after World War II. Each portrait is accompanied with a panel briefly citing the person’s role in history.

Michelle Obama, painting by Amy Sherald

I then climbed the elegant stairway to the third floor in search of Michelle Obama’s portrait in the gallery of Twentieth-Century Americans. The painting by Amy Sherald, of Michelle Obama in a flowing white dress, dominates the room.

I then climbed more stairs to reach the third-floor mezzanine where paintings of American sports heroes line the wall. 

Gallery of Champions, Arthur Ashe

There I found baseball players, football stars, tennis champions—men and women athletes whose names have become part of history. At the other end of the mezzanine are portraits of people from the entertainment world—actors, singers, dancers.

Third floor mezzanine.

The paintings on exhibit are just the tip of the iceberg, a selected few of the thousands of portraits in the Smithsonian collection. You can find more by searching the National Portrait Gallery's website. You may be surprised at what you will discover!

 

ON TOUR IN EUROPE WITH THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY, 5 CITIES, 14 DAYS--Guest Post by Tom and Susan Weisner

The Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg Symphony Hall, Germany.

Our friends, Susan and Tom Weisner, went along with their son Jeffrey and granddaughters and family on a tour of Europe with the National Symphony in February 2024. Jeff plays the double bass in the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, DC. Seven flights, six train trips, and many bus transfers later, here are some highlights from five cities along the way of the 14-day tour.

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain--still under construction.

Mercado de la Boqueria, Barcelona.

First stop, Barcelona, Spain, capital of the Catalan region of Spain. The Antoni Gaudi designed and imagined La Sagrada Familia Cathedral is a highlight, as is the Ramblas walking street off of Catalan Square, and the Mercado de la Boqueria open market.

View of Toledo, Spain.

The Gothic style cathedral, Toledo, dates from the 1200s.

The narrow streets of Toledo--cathedral dimly visible in background.

We then took a train to Madrid, and a half day train ride and tour of Toledo – a wonderful historic Spanish city about 40 minutes from Madrid.

Berlin Wall Museum.

We all then flew to Berlin with the NSO. We visited the cold war era Berlin Wall museum and model of the former “Checkpoint Charlie” crossing; the new glass dome on the German Parliament or Reichstag Building, and the Holocaust memorial site near the Brandenburg Gate. 

In Berlin we toured the new German Parliament glass dome which looks directly into the parliament chamber.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.

We also took our granddaughters to the Computer Games Historical Museum in the former East Berlin on the Karl Marx Allee, the Illusions museum, and the Spy Museum (sorry, no photos)! There are huge shopping and walking streets and parks in Berlin as well. The rest of the family flew home from Berlin – school and work!

In Cologne, on the way to the train station.

Next Susan and I took the train to Cologne, Germany, where we met up again with the orchestra, and went to a concert in their  beautiful concert hall. We then took the train for one day to Kassel, Germany, for a brief visit, where Tom’s father and grandparents had lived until they fled Hitler in 1938.

La Scala, Milan, Italy.

The NSO chartered a plane to Milan, Italy, to play a concert at La Scala for one night. The La Scala experience was great, but no time for anything else to see in Milan, because we flew the next morning to Hamburg, Germany, the last stop on the tour. We and the NSO stayed at the Elbphilharmonie, an amazing new building. (See first photo.) The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany, which opened in 2017 with multiple concert halls and hotel all built on top of an existing former warehouse. The hotel is in the building with the symphony halls, and the public can walk up to see the views of the city.

Concert hall, Hamburg.

The Brahms Music Museum in Hamburg, Germany. Can you name the seven famous composers?

Inside the Brahms Music Museum.

Many thanks to Susan and Tom for sharing highlights of their trip with The Intrepid Tourist!