Joan Miró in het Rijksmuseum

Twenty-one sculptures by the Spanish artist Joan Miró are adorning the gardens of the Rijksmuseum this summer. This is the first-ever exhibition of Miró's sculptures in the Netherlands. The four-metre-high Oiseau lunaire is making its first public appearance. Since it was cast in bronze in the 1980's, it had never left the warehouse of its commissioning party in New York, until recently when it came into the possession of a private European owner. Guest curator Alfred Pacquement, the former director of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, selected sculptures by Miró from the 1966-1982 period. They were loaned out by international museums and private parties, including the Successió Miró (Palma de Mallorca), Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró (Palma de Mallorca), Fundació Miró (Barcelona), La Caixa Collection of Contemporary Art (Barcelona), Fondation Maeght (Saint-Paul-de-Vence) Fondation Beyeler (Riehen), Galerie Lelong (Paris), Museum Frieder Burda (Baden-Baden) and the Balear Government on Mallorca. Twenty-one statues are on display outside and two--including the 1966 prototype of Oiseau lunaire--are inside in the Rijksmuseum's Atrium.