Institut Ramon LLull

In this fascinating book, the result of scrupulous research in public and private archives around the world, Josep Massot reveals Miró’s fierce struggle to maintain his art in a state of constant innovation and dodge the pressures of the Francoist regime. In a world of vanguards and trenches, the painter displayed an unwavering commitment to freedom in his art and thought. Massot explains in detail how geopolitics crept in through the keyhole and how art, power, money, and friendship intersected. The book explains the ethics of Miró’s battle to set an example and help the younger generations raised under the dictatorship. And it also brings to light how his anti-fascist American friends saved him from isolation during World War II, and how the MoMA, the New York school—Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko—and artists such as Louise Bourgeois elevated him to the status of the most influential living artist in the world.