The Miró Foundation was a gift from the artist Joan Miró to his native city and is one of Barcelona’s most exciting showcases of contemporary art. The airy, white building was designed by Josep Lluís Sert and opened in 1975; an extension was added by Sert’s pupil Jaume Freixa in 1988.
Miró’s unmistakably playful and colorful style, filled with Mediterranean light and humor, seems a perfect match for its surroundings. Look for Alexander Calder’s mercury fountain. Miró himself rests in the cemetery on Montjuïc’s southern slopes. When he died in 1983, the Catalans gave him a send-off amounting to a state funeral.
