Joan Miró / Alexander Calder: Space in Motion

The encounter between Alexander Calder and Joan Miró represents one of the most fertile artistic friendships and sustained visual dialogues of the twentieth century. The two artists met in Paris in late 1928 and remained in close contact until Calder’s death in 1976.

The work of Miró and Calder has frequently been paired in exhibitions. In proximity, Calder’s own mobiles, stabiles and tabletop/wall sculptures seem to activate the spatial qualities inherent in Miró’s painting, just as Miró’s imagistic universe of signs and schematic renderings of figures draws out in two dimensions many of the implications of Calder’s sculpture.

The exhibition Joan Miró and Alexander Calder: Space in Motion was organised by the Serralves Foundation in collaboration with Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, and is curated by Robert Lubar Messeri. The exhibition displays works by Joan Miró in the Portuguese State Collections, on extended loan to the Porto Municipality on deposit at the Serralves Museum, and an important group of works by the two artists loaned by Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.