Why Miró's monsters weren't just oversized toys

Like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Joan Miró was a pillar of modern art in the second half of the 20th century. Under no financial pressure, he could have slowed down when he reached retirement age.

Instead, the internationally recognized artist remained restlessly productive over the last two decades of his life before dying in 1983 at age 90. Collecting objects he would find washed up on the beaches near his home in Mallorca, he would assemble them and send them to a foundry to get them cast in bronze.

In some cases, he painted the heavy bronze in bright colors. The paint gave an unusual dimension to the sculptures, adding lightness to the heavy material usually used in memorials.

"I am an established painter but a young sculptor," he told American sculptor Alexander Calder in 1974. Miró was then 81 years old.

The "young" sculptor saw in the art form an opportunity to create "a world of monsters," which is the title of a new exhibition on show at the Max Ernst Museum in Brühl, near Cologne in Germany.

Miró donated many of his sculptures to the Maeght family, contributing to the creation of the renowned Maeght Foundation in France. The foundation has loaned 67 artworks for the exhibition, which runs from September 3 through January 28, 2018.

Click through the gallery above to discover some of the works on show. More works by Miró, seen in a 2016 exhibition in the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, can be found in the gallery below.