Free spirit

Joan Miró (1893–1983) was a great imaginative artist and a pure painter of genius.

Joan Miró (1893–1983) was a great imaginative artist and a pure painter of genius. He produced a huge body of work over a long life, and this excellent selection of it transforms the uninspiring galleries at Tate Modern, which have rarely looked so good.

This exhibition offers the political interpretation. You can see Miró as a surrealist, as a formalist or as a political artist. Actually, he was none of these, but allowed each to touch upon the wellsprings of his creativity and have some sort of relationship with his art. His identity as a Catalan is of far greater moment than most other issues, and this fundamental approach to life (his passionate concern for the Catalan nation, its people and traditions) is deeply intertwined with his political attitude. For those who wish to view Miró through the political prism of his times, the essays in the catalogue (£24.99