Joan Miro was born the son of a goldsmith and jewellery maker in Barcelona. He studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts, though his parents had hoped he would take up a career as a businessman; he worked as an accountant for nearly two years until a nervous breakdown led him back to art.
Miro is known for his playful art — emblematic images that make a naive, childlike impression at first sight. Yet in contrast to his work, he was a solid, hard-working and methodical man, who preferred to attend gallery openings in a dark business suit.
Early in his career he dabbled in Fauvism and Cubism. From 1924 he joined the circle of Surrealist theorist Andre Breton, and his painting took a turn toward Surrealism, though he never fully integrated into the group — famously declaring an “assassination of painting” in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established art.
