How Artist Joan Miró Managed His Depression

How Artist Joan Miró Managed His Depression

Joan Miró (April 20, 1893-December 25, 1983) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. In his book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, author Mason Currey writes:

Miró always maintained a rigidly inflexible daily routine—both because he disliked being distracted from his work, and because he feared slipping back into the severe depression that had afflicted him as a young man, before he discovered painting. To help prevent a relapse, his routine always included vigorous exercise—boxing in Paris; jumping rope and Swedish gymnastics at a Barcelona gym; and running on the beach and swimming at Mont-roig, a seaside village where his family owned a farmhouse, to which Miró returned nearly every summer to escape city life and recharge his creative energies.