The Joan Miró Foundation marks its 50th anniversary with a yearlong celebration of exhibitions, concerts, and special events. The festivities honor the Catalan artist’s legacy and the cultural landmark he helped create.
A major cultural institution, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a rich lineup of exhibitions, concerts, and special events paying tribute to the prolific Catalan artist.
The festivities, taking place throughout the year under the slogan “For the People of Tomorrow,” begin Thursday with the opening of Poetry Is Just Beginning, an exhibition tracing the history of the foundation that has preserved the legacy of this major 20th-century painter and sculptor since 1975.
“In 50 years, we’ve gone from the dream of a single artist to becoming a cultural reference in Barcelona and beyond,” said Marko Daniel, director of the Miró Foundation, while outlining the upcoming anniversary program last week.
Using photographs, architectural drawings, and newspaper clippings, the exhibition highlights the path that led Miró (1893–1983), then living in Mallorca, to reconnect with his native city and envision this cultural space, originally called the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Art Studies.
Architect Josep Lluís Sert, a close friend of Miró’s, was commissioned to design the building — a bold white-concrete structure on Montjuïc hill, overlooking Barcelona. Its modernist lines are meant to engage in a visual dialogue with the artist’s work.
To fully appreciate the building’s distinctive architecture, the Foundation will open its doors at 6:00 a.m. on June 15, giving early visitors the chance to experience the dawn light streaming across the artworks, walls, and hidden corners, ahead of a day of public festivities.
“Miró didn’t just leave us a building, an institution, and a stunning, one-of-a-kind collection — he also gave us a way of seeing the world,” said Marko Daniel, who has led the Foundation since 2018.
— A U.S. Exhibition Highlight —
One of the biggest milestones in the anniversary year comes in October, with the opening of Miró and the United States, an exhibition exploring the artist’s relationship with a country he visited seven times between 1947 and 1968.
The show will feature works by Louise Bourgeois, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, offering a deeper look at how the surrealist-influenced Miró, better known for his time in France, connected with and influenced the American art world over many years.
“After its run here, the show will travel to the Phillips Collection in Washington, and will become the most significant Miró exhibition ever held in the United States,” noted Ana Ara, artistic director at the Joan Miró Foundation.
Another major event is planned for spring 2026, when the Foundation will reorganize its permanent collection to reflect Miró’s creative process and his deep attention to space — with new explanatory materials helping to immerse visitors in the moments of artistic creation.
“We want people to feel what it was like when Miró was making these works,” Ara explained.
Another highlight of the anniversary year is the long-awaited opening of the Cypress Garden, a green space donated to the Foundation in 1975 but until now closed to the public. It will finally welcome visitors from spring through fall.
The Joan Miró Foundation, which also houses a documentation center and supports emerging artists, held its first low-key opening on June 10, 1975 — an intentional decision by Miró, who wanted to avoid the presence of officials from Francisco Franco’s regime, then in its final days.
A second, more festive inauguration followed in June 1976, months after the dictator’s death in November of the previous year.
By Rosa SULLEIRO / AFP
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