Co-organized with the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, Miró and the United States explores the vibrant exchanges between Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893-1983) and the burgeoning American art scene in a pivotal moment of 20th-century art. This little-known yet decisive period of connection between Miró and American artists—including Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Krasner, Norman Lewis, Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, and Adolph Gottlieb—was influential in the development of post-war art on both sides of the Atlantic.
At the end of his life, Joan Miró maintained, “It was really American painting that inspired me.”
For Miró, the United States represented new audiences and creative freedom. He had retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1941 and 1959, and traveled to the US seven times between 1947 and 1968, during which he met artists in their studios, collaborated on prints and architectural projects, and closely followed exhibitions at galleries and museums.
Featuring 75 works by more than 30 artists, this exhibition reframes Miró’s legacy, revealing how his dream-like pictures evolved through artistic dialogue and experimentation with his American counterparts.
Learn more about this exhibit, running through July 5th, 2026, at thephillipscollection.org
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