Learning to Look: Miró's Modern Portrait

Kimbell Kids

FALL 2021 | FOR YOUNG ART LOVERS

LEARNING TO LOOK MIRÓ’S MODERN PORTRAIT

L E A R NI NG TO L O OK MIRÓ’S MODERN PORTRAIT

Hi, friends!

What does the color blue make you think about? How does yellow make you feel? What does your favorite color mean to you?

At the Kimbell Art Museum, you will see how artists use colors to highlight important clues or to create a special mood. And things get really exciting when modern painters start experimenting with new, especially bright colors!

What will catch your eye?

In This Issue Look, Imagine, Trace Explore how Miró plays with color, line, and texture.

How Photography Changed Painting Learn how the camera opened the door for modern painters to experiment!

Art School Friends Did the painter know his subject? Find out!

Create a Modern Portrait!

Combine colors and shapes for your own Miró-inspired portrait.

New Words: Bowler hat

A hat with a rounded top, usually made of hard felt

Complementary colors

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel; when close to each other, they look brighter

Fresco

A type of wall painting

Inspiration

A brilliant or creative idea

Modern

Relates to the present or recent times

Pattern

Repeated design

Portrait

An image that shows an individual

Vibrate

To move back and forth quickly

Meet Heriberto Casany LOOK at how the painter Miró combines colors in bold and unexpected ways. The bright yellow background vibrates with energy. The purple and green lightning bolt on Heriberto’s bowler hat also grabs our attention! How many different colors do you see on his face and clothing?

IMAGINE trying to sit like this.

It looks like Heriberto is about to slide off his blue chair!

Miró was less interested in simply recording what he saw. He wanted to focus on what happens when you experiment with colors, lines, and shapes.

TRACE the lines in this picture. Where do you see wiggly, curvy, or zig-zagging lines? The strong outlines for Heriberto’s hands make them stand out against the patterns of his tweed suit. Touches of white paint suggest the rough, bumpy texture of the fabric.

Art School Friends What can you tell about Heriberto Casany by looking at Miró’s portrait? The framed picture of a car is a clue that tells us about this man’s family. They ran a successful car rental business and a horse-riding school. But Heriberto wanted to become an artist.

He met Miró at art school in Barcelona, Spain. What do you like to do with your friends?

How Photography Changed Painting When Miró painted this over a hundred years ago, cameras (and automobiles, too!) had been around for a few decades.

Since photographs showed how things really looked, many modern artists like Miró felt free to explore new ideas.

Just Starting Out Miró painted this portrait as a young man in his twenties.

He soon moved to Paris, where he met other artists and writers who wanted to change how people saw and thought about art. Miró became famous for his abstracted paintings, ceramics, and sculptures—like the one in front of the Kimbell Art Museum’s east entrance!

Word Play Choose words that describe this painting to create a poem inspired by Miró’s last name. For example, for “M” you might choose machine, man, or modern!

M I R Ó

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Create a Modern Portrait!

Materials: Cardboard, assorted paper shapes, markers, scissors, and a glue stick

1. Cut the colorful cardboard rectangles to create interesting shapes for your facial

features (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, eyebrows). The white paper works well for the eyes!

2. Organize the cut shapes on the large cardboard. Try overlapping shapes or letting

them hang over the edge of the cardboard. Experiment with different arrangements.

Don’t glue them down yet!

3. Add details and patterns with markers. Use your imagination like the painter Miró!

4. Complete your modern portrait by gluing the loose pieces onto the cardboard.

Examples of Modern Portraits

Coming Up for Kimbell Kids Kimbell Kids Art Kits Selected Saturdays, 1–1:45 pm

Pictures and Pages / Fotos y Libros Selected Tuesdays, 11 am Facebook Live Youth education programs are supported by the Lowe Foundation Endowment for Kimbell Kids and a grant from the Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation.

Special Exhibitions

Turner’s Modern World Fall 2021 The Language of Beauty in African Art Spring 2022 Murillo: From Heaven to Earth Fall 2022

Learning to Look

Learning to Look is a free, biannual publication designed for young art lovers.

Each issue explores one object from the Kimbell’s permanent collection with engaging graphics, fun facts, and prompts to encourage close looking, personal connections, and creative expression.

Joan Miró, Portrait of Heriberto Casany, 1918, oil on canvas. Kimbell Art Museum. © 2021 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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Kimbell Art Museum 3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas, 76107 817-332-8451 | kimbellart.org

L E A R NI NG TO L O OK