Joan Miro 1979

With his wide-ranging oeuvre, comprising strikingly original paintings, prints, ceramics, sculptures, metal engravings and murals, Catalan modernist Joan Miró was a critical force in moving 20th-century art toward complete abstraction. Although often considered an early Surrealist because of his nonobjective imagery and evocation of the subconscious, he defies neat categorization.

Miró’s identity is largely rooted in the city of his birth: Barcelona. To this day, a number of his public artworks can be found there, including the 72-foot-tall statue Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird), 1983. Female and avian forms, along with bright colors and the theme of Catalan pride, are recurring elements in his work.

The radical visual world Miró created with his expressive lines, signature symbols and biomorphic shapes influenced such American Abstract Expressionists as Jackson Pollock and Color Field painters like Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

Mirò continued to work and experiment until his death at the age of 90 in 1983. Five years before that, he was quoted saying, “I painted these paintings in a frenzy, with real violence so that people will know that I am alive, that I’m breathing, that I still have a few more places to go. I’m heading in new directions.”

Find a collection of original Joan Miró art on 1stDibs.

Explore a vast range of abstract prints on 1stDibs to find a piece to enhance your existing collection or transform a space.

Unlike figurative paintings and other figurative art, which focuses on realism and representational perspectives, abstract art concentrates on visual interpretation. An artist may use a single color or simple geometric forms to create a world of depth. Printmaking has a rich history of abstraction. Through materials like stone, metal, wood and wax, an image can be transferred from one surface to another.

During the 19th century, iconic artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton and others, began exploring works based on shapes and colors. This was a departure from the academic conventions of European painting and would influence the rise of 20th-century abstraction and its pioneers, like Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

Some leaders of European abstraction, including Franz Kline, were influenced by the gestural shapes of East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy interprets poetry, songs, symbols or other means of storytelling into art, from works on paper in Japan to elements of Islamic architecture.

Bold, daring and expressive, abstract art is constantly evolving and dazzling viewers. And entire genres have blossomed from it, such as Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The collection of abstract art prints on 1stDibs includes etchings, lithographs, screen-prints and other works, and you can find prints by artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and more.