“In his paintings, he offered escape from the horrors of the First World War, the Second World War, and the Spanish Civil War,” says curator Isabelle Bscher of Joan Miró. Sixty-five works by the Spanish painter, a Surrealist who reveled in primary colors contained in biomorphic borders of black, are on view in Monte Carlo. It’s a historic location for Miró. In 1926, for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, he designed sets for Romeo and Juliet, and in 1932, for de Basil’s Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, his designs graced Jeux d’Enfants (The New York Times would call it “a gay and merry little piece dealing with the awakening of toys”). Both premieres took place in Monte Carlo, and the very painting used in the latter ballet now acts as the centerpiece of this new exhibition—a whimsical distraction from the disasters of today. —J.V.