Talks & Conversations

Finding Awe: Joan Miró’s The Farm 

Part of Finding Awe
Two angular, cream-white buildings flanking a central, stylized tree are surrounded by brown soil, small animals, and farmhouse objects like watering cans and buckets beneath a clear, azure-blue sky in this square landscape painting. We look straight onto the buildings and slightly down onto the earth in front of us. About a third of the way up the composition, the horizon is lined with trees and mountains in the deep distance. The long, spindly branches of the central tree nearly reach the top edge of the painting and abstracted, sickle-shaped leaves are silhouetted against the sky so no leaves overlap. The far edge of the whitewashed structure to our left is cropped. The façade is pierced by two small rectangular windows and an arched hatch at the top under a winch. The back end of a horse is visible through an open door at the bottom center. Horizontal bands in front of the building suggest furrows in plowed earth, and a single stalk of corn grows up into the scene, seeming close to us. A pen protected by netting stretches out in front of the second structure, to our right of center. That wood-frame building has a triangular peaked roof, and the left half is open, like a lean-to. A goat, rooster, birds, and several rabbits occupy the pen. Watering cans, buckets and pails, a hoe, newspaper, lizard, and snail are spaced around the buildings. A tiny stylized person, perhaps a baby, appears in the distance between the buildings near a well where a woman works. A covered wagon, a round mill, trees, and plants fill the rest of the space between the buildings. A disk-like moon hangs in the sky to the right of the tree. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner, "Miro. 1921-22."
Joan Miró, The Farm, 1921-1922, oil on canvas, Gift of Mary Hemingway, 1987.18.1

Discover how Joan Miró transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary and reflect on the role of awe in the creative process.

Take a 90-minute pause from your daily routine: we’ll explore Miró’s The Farm. Look slowly and mindfully, wonder, and share your insights with the group. Learn how playful exercises stretched surrealist artists’ thinking—and try one yourself! You’ll leave with “awe practices” that you can use every day.  

Research shows that experiencing awe helps support our mental and physical wellbeing, inspire creativity, and deepen empathy. Explore awe at the National Gallery of Art.

Registration full? Check back on the mornings of September 18 and September 19 for last-minute passes.
Chairs provided, assistive listening devices available
Questions? Email us at [email protected].

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