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		Childlike play, dreamlike euphoria, hallucinatory highs and organic forms can all be found in Joan Miro's works. Often labeled as a surrealist riding along in the surrealist art movement, Miro did not want to put himself into a category for fear of not being able to experiment with other artistic styles. In fact Miro pursued his own interests in the art world, ranging from automatic drawing and surrealism, to expressionism and Color Field painting. Yet the surrealist's influence on Miro (a cultural art movement that is like a sandbox for the subconscious mind along with the influence by another cultural movement, Dada, which used anti-art works to reject the standards for art) were still profound. Though Miro avoided membership of the surrealist group, the founder of the surrealists, Andre Breton, described Miro as "the most Surrealist of us all." Miró even confessed to creating one of his most famous works, Harlequin's Carnival, under surreal circumstance:

"How did I think up my drawings and my ideas for painting? Well I'd come home to my Paris studio in Rue Blomet at night, I'd go to bed, and sometimes I hadn't any supper. I saw things, and I jotted them down in a notebook. I saw shapes on the ceiling..."

It was Andre Breton, in 1959, who asked Miro to represent Spain in The Homage to Surrealism exhibition, together with works by Enrique Tabara, Eugenio Granell and Salvador Dali.

Many of Miro's other influences began at a young age. At the age of seven Miro started drawing classes but later listened to his parents insistence to pursue a decent profession. So Miro took business classes and became a book-keeper, as well as studied art in the academy La Escuala de la Lonja in Barcelona from 1907-1910. Then from 1912-1915 he studied in the private academy of Frances D'A Gali Fabra. It wasn't until 1920 that Miro felt drawn to the art community that was developing in Montparnasse in Paris. Upon moving to Paris, Miro developed his own unique style under the influence of poets and writers, a style that consisted of organic forms and flattened picture planes drawn with a sharp line.

As time progressed Miro's work became more and more organic and abstract. In the 1930's the artist experimented with different materials. He made assemblages from materials and objects that he found; he painted, drew and collaged on paper, masonite, sandpaper, and copper. Known also for making use of empty space in his works Miro is quoted to have said in 1958 in Twentieth-Century Artists on Art ," The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun. There, in my pictures, tiny forms in huge empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains - everything which is bare has always greatly impressed me."

Two of his large art works were done in 1974 and 1981. In '74 Miro created a tapestry for the World Trade Center in New York City. He refused to make the tapestry at first but then learned the craft and produced several. His World Trade Center Tapestry was displayed for many years at the World Trade Center building. It was one of the most expensive works of art lost during the attack of the twin towers. In '81 The Sun, the Moon and One Star- later renamed Miro's Chicago-was unveiled. The mixed media sculpture is outside in the downtown Loop area of Chicago.

Born from surrealism and growing up in abstraction and organic form Baterby's carries the works of this master artist and displays them in the gallery, as well as sells his works at auctions. Joan Miro's legacy of surrealism and artistic expression lives on at Baterby's Art Auction Gallery.