How Joan Miró, Spanish artist, explored ‘the meaning of life’ through everyday objects shown in Hong Kong Museum of Art exhibition

The Spanish artist is known for eccentric art that explores our relationship with the world. New exhibition The Poetry of Everyday Life includes 94 of his works

Many are being exhibited for the first time in Asia, and include works showing his use of found objects to form unexpected figures and characters

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Installation view of “The Poetry of Everyday Life”. The exhibition of work by Joan Miró shows the Spanish artist’s use of everyday objects to explore “the meaning of life”, according to the director a museum in Spain which has lent many of the pieces for the show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Photo: Hong Kong Museum of Art

Published: 4:15pm, 14 Mar 2023

For Spanish artist Joan Miró, the everyday always sparked fascination and inspiration.

Endlessly curious about the poetic qualities inherent in ordinary and humble objects, the artist, who died in 1983 aged 90, spent decades creating works that upset conventional artistic norms and delved into humankind’s relationship with the world.

“The Poetry of Everyday Life”, a new exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), includes 94 works on loan from the Fundació Joan Miró – a museum in Barcelona, Spain, that honours the artist – and private collections.

Of these, 80 per cent are being shown in Asia for the first time, and 11 works have never been loaned out by the museum before. They include paintings, sculptures, lithographs, posters, audiovisual materials and more.

Joan Miró was fascinated by the poetic qualities inherent in everyday objects. Photo: Hereus de Joaquim Gomis via Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Born in Barcelona in 1893, Miró turned to poetry, in particular, to learn about the diversity and richness of the world, says Marko Daniel, the director of Fundació Joan Miró.

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