Between 1912 and 1915 Joan Miró (Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983) was a student in the class of Francesc Galí, who employed modern pedagogy. There, he met Llorens Artigas and Enric Cristòfor Ricart. In 1918 he had his first solo exhibition at Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. The following year he traveled to Paris where he came into contact with Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, and Dadaist Tristan Tzara. His painting, influenced by Fauvism, Expressionism, and Cubism, began to evolve toward greater formal definition. In 1922 he participated in the first Surrealist painting exhibition in Paris at Galerie Pierre. Along with Max Ernst he designed the sets and stage costumes for the ballet Romeo and Juliette produced by Diaguilev’s dance company.

In 1928 he created several object-paintings and two years later his first poetic objects. In 1937 he created the mural El segador [The Reaper] for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair that same year, a commission given to him by the government of Spain’s Second Republic. In 1944 he returned to painting on canvas. At the time he also experimented with bronze sculpture, ceramics, etchings, and tapestries. In 1975, the Fundació Miró opened in Barcelona in a building designed by Josep Lluís Sert.