Inspiration
Among the early inspirations are Matisse, Hieronymus Bosch and the Romanesque frescos in Northern Spain. In 1919 Miró met Picasso, after having traveled to Paris and he began getting influenced by cubism and naivism.

Surrealism
But it was to be surrealism that became the greatest influence in the art of Miró. He quickly became a central figure within the movement, even though he himself refused to sign its treaties and he never participated in political events held created by the surrealists.

The surrealists wanted to reach a pure expression of the unconscious layers in the artist by automatism and they were interested in parapsycholgy, madness but also the art of children, which they saw as a potent expression of the uncensured and poly-facetted self. Miró said that the hallucinations provoked by hunger and starring at plaster had made him able to set free his hability to fantasize.

The museum and Josep Lluís Sert (1902-83)
The personal friend of Miró, Josep Lluís Sert, built the Fundació Miró at the Montjuïc Mountain during the yearsi 1972-75. Sert played an important role in the introduction of international modernism in Spain after working for Le Corbousir in Paris during the years 1929-31.

The museum has beautiful views of Barcelona. And it contains around 300 paintings and 150 sculptures. Besides the work of Miró, modern art by Warhol, Magritte, Rothko and Giacometti is exhibited.

See photos of Miró's work and the Miró Museum in Barcelona here.