Joan Miró

Sources: MoMA: The Escape Ladder, The Met: Painting (1927), MoMA: The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers, MoMA: Painting (1936), MoMA: The Two Philosophers, MoMA: Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937, and Fundació Joan Miró: Woman.

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  Gouache paint

  In The Escape Ladder (1940), part of Miró’s Constellations series, opaque gouache shares paper with watercolor and ink. Dense color accents sit among fine lines, stars, and figures; this mixed-media sheet is distinct from his oil paintings on canvas and rigid supports.

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  Watercolor paint

  MoMA records watercolor alongside gouache and ink in The Escape Ladder (1940). Fluid washes form a colored ground for drawn signs and figures, allowing the paper and ink marks to remain visible. This documented work on paper shows Miró using transparent color within a tightly integrated mixed-media composition.

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  Oil paint

  Miró combined oil with tempera in Painting (1927), and later mixed oil and casein in Painting (Birds, Personages, and Blue Star) (1950). The first is on canvas; the latter on raw, unprimed canvas. These records show him changing both binders and supports while retaining a direct, experimental approach to painting.

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  Tempera paint

  The Met identifies tempera and oil together in Miró’s Painting (1927). Its record does not specify an egg binder, so the medium should remain identified as tempera rather than being narrowed to egg tempera. Here it is one component of a mixed-media painting on canvas.

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  Casein paint

  The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center lists oil and casein on canvas for Painting (Birds, Personages, and Blue Star) (1950). Miró worked on unprimed fabric, leaving the support visible around the painted marks. The work belongs to his more deliberate, materially experimental paintings and documents casein as a distinct binder.

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  Acrylic paint

  The Fundació Joan Miró records Woman (21 April 1978) as acrylic on canvas; another painting made the same day combines acrylic with oil. These late works document acrylic within Miró’s changing practice, rather than treating it as the medium of his 1920s Surrealist pictures.

Sources: MoMA: The Escape Ladder, gouache and watercolor, The Met: Painting (1927), tempera and oil, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: oil and casein on raw canvas, Fundació Joan Miró: acrylic Woman, and Fundació Joan Miró: acrylic-and-oil Woman.

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  Canvas

  Miró used canvas for paintings across several periods, from the oil-and-tempera Painting (1927) to later works in acrylic and oil. Collection records at the Met and the Fundació Joan Miró document the support; his practice also included unprimed canvas, where the woven fabric remains visible.

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  Paper

  Miró made watercolors, gouaches, drawings, and mixed-media compositions on paper. MoMA’s The Escape Ladder combines watercolor, gouache, and ink on a sheet, showing paper as an active part of the composition rather than merely a preliminary drawing surface. MoMA’s record identifies the sheet as the painted support.

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  Cardboard

  Miró used cardboard in painted and collage-based works, including pieces that join a painted surface with found materials. Fundació Miró Mallorca documents cardboard among the supports he explored, distinguishing these works from his conventional canvas paintings. The support remains part of the assembled composition.

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  Wood

  Miró painted on wood panels, including plywood, and also incorporated painted wood into assemblages. His late painted forms let the rigid support contribute to the work’s physical construction; the support is materially visible rather than hidden beneath a stretched canvas.

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  Painting Board

  Miró used Masonite and other boards for compositions such as Painting (1936), recorded as oil, tar, casein, and sand on Masonite. He sometimes left the hardboard exposed, letting its color and rough texture remain part of the image. The object record confirms the hardboard support.

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  Metal

  Miró used metal in painted assemblages and sculptural works. The Reina Sofía records Objet-peinture as including painted iron sheet alongside wood, plywood, and found objects; the metal is an actual painted component, not a conventional flat canvas support. The museum record identifies the painted metal component.

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  Ceramic

  Miró developed painted and glazed ceramic works with Josep Llorens Artigas, including monumental murals and freestanding objects. MoMA records painted earthenware in Monument, while the Guggenheim documents his ceramic mural Alicia; these fired supports extend his painting into architecture and sculpture.

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  Cork

  Miró painted on cork sheets and also incorporated cork into collage and assemblage. The Fundació Miró Mallorca describes cork among his unconventional supports, where the material’s natural texture remains visible beside painted marks and attached objects. The surface’s natural texture remains exposed.

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  Cow skin

  Miró painted on cow skin, preserving the animal hide’s irregular shape and natural surface beneath the image. Fundació Miró Mallorca documents this unusual support among his experiments beyond canvas and paper; it makes the material itself a visible part of the composition.

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  Plastic

  Miró used plastic packaging in painted and assembled works, according to Fundació Miró Mallorca. The everyday synthetic material extends his experiments with found supports and objects; it belongs to a specific unconventional practice rather than the conventional paper or canvas formats.

Sources: MoMA: The Escape Ladder, gouache, watercolor, and ink on paper, Fundació Joan Miró: Painting (1936), oil and casein on Masonite, Museo Reina Sofía: Objet-peinture, painted iron sheet and found objects, Fundació Miró Mallorca: Miró Beyond the Canvas, unconventional supports, Fundació Miró Mallorca: Unseen Miró, cow skin, cork, and plastic packaging, and Conservation study: PVAc paint on plywood in a 1977 Miró work