Among the great twentieth-century masters, the surrealist painter Joan Miró stands out for the atmosphere of wit and spontaneity that pervades his work. Author and artist Roland Penrose, a friend of Miró’s for almost five decades, discusses Miró’s art through its many phases. Penrose also examines its major features―the birth of his signs and symbols; his series of anguished peintures sauvages in the 1930s; his lyrical, poetic gouaches; his monumental sculptures and ceramics; his unprecedented use of poetic titles; and his attachment to nature and the night. A brief epilogue by Eduardo de Benito, London correspondent of the Spanish art periodical Lápiz, illustrates the developments of Miró’s last years. This new revised edition, now illustrated in color throughout, includes a foreword by Antony Penrose, Roland’s son, outlining the relationship between his father and the artist, as well as updates to the bibliography.

144 color illustrations