Joan Miró is without a doubt one of the key figures in the development of abstraction in the twentieth century. In fact, aside from Picasso, he is the most important source in developing non-pictorial images.
In the 1920s, Miró, a Spanish artist working in Paris, like Picasso, began to develop an abstract surrealist style and continued to work in that style through the 1930s. Though he never came to this country, his work was widely known in the United States. In the ’40s, Miró lighted the path to abstract expressionism in America through his advocacy of automatism. Using this approach, the artist was freed from the methods of traditional picture-making through the intercession of the subconscious, which guided the brush in seemingly random directions. Despite this, Miró held on to certain
Article source: http://www.westword.com/arts/women-birds-and-stars-shine-in-joan-mir-instinct-and-imagination-at-the-dam-6683845