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Miró's The Lovers' Couple illuminates the 50th anniversary of the Miró Foundation at the MNAC
The National Museum of Art of Catalonia has joined the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Fundació Joan Miró and, from this September 25, it opens the doors of the Sala de la Cúpula to an exceptional piece: the Maqueta para Parella d'enamorats dels jocs de flors d'ametller. This is not just any sculpture, but the preparatory version of one of Miró's most emblematic public works, the large polyester sculpture inaugurated in 1978 in the heart of the new district of La Défense, in Paris, a space where the Catalan artist left an indelible mark on the urban landscape.
The presence of this model at the MNAC becomes even more significant because it is presented in direct dialogue with another testimony of the same creative moment of Miró: the mural that, together with the ceramist Joan Gardy Artigas, he conceived that same year for the building of the technology company IBM. Sculpture and mural, body and wall, volume and surface, now rise under the majestic dome that Francesc d'A. Galí —Miró's teacher and key figure in his training— painted in 1929. This triple artistic encounter, between master and disciple, between painting, mural and sculpture, offers a privileged setting for understanding the intensity of the dialogue between tradition and modernity, between memory and the radicality of the contemporary gesture.
With these two works, the visitor can perceive how Miró questioned the coexistence of art with modern architecture. His vibrant colorism, the almost telluric energy of the forms and the organic freedom of his imagination contrast —and at the same time harmonize— with the rationalist coldness and clean lines of the functional environment. In this play of tensions, the human figures of the Couple in Love emerge with a singular force: they are bodies full of life and color, points of union between the human scale and the monumentality of architecture.
Miró, faithful to his desire to make art a universal and accessible language, achieves that sculpture is not an isolated object but a living presence that dialogues with its environment. In this way, he fulfills his desire to integrate art into public space and offer it as a shared experience, as a gesture of love and collective celebration.
In this meeting at the MNAC, the Model for a Couple in Love not only tells us about the genesis of a monumental work, but also invites us to reflect on Miró's ability to transform space, to reconcile architectural rigor with the poetry of color, and to make art take root in people's daily lives.
50 years of the Miró Foundation
The 50th anniversary of the Fundació Joan Miró (2025-2026), under the motto For the people of tomorrow, is a choral celebration that vindicates the institution as a cultural epicenter and space for dialogue between art, society and the future. With a program that combines major exhibitions such as Poetry Has Just Begun; Miró and the United States; the reorganization of the Collection and the opening of the Cypress Garden, as well as concerts, performances and educational activities, the anniversary extends beyond Montjuïc thanks to the participation of a wide cultural fabric. In addition to the MNAC, other major facilities such as the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Peralada Festival or the Museo Reina Sofía, among many others, have joined in with their own proposals, making the fiftieth anniversary not only a celebration of the Fundació Joan Miró but of the entire artistic and cultural community.
