Joan Miró

JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de Mallorca, 1983).
"La poseída de Cala Major" 1981.
Etching with aquatint, carborundum and drypoint on BFK Rives paper, copy 17/60.
Signed with stamp and numbered in pencil.
Certified on the back by Mr. Emilio Fernández Miró, grandson of the artist, with stamp of the Miró Estate.
Catalogued in "Miró Engraver-Jacques Dupin". Vol.IV, pg 207, figure 1282.
Work belonging to the series "Characters of the sea", last series of engravings that the artist made, published by order of the Miró Estate in 1990.
Measurements: 68,2 x 54 cm.(print); 96 x 75 cm.(sheet). 116 x 96 cm (frame).

"The possessed of Cala Major" presents a central figure of indeterminate anatomy, a torso of zoomorphic features that seems to merge the human with the animal. The title, which alludes to the Mallorcan neighborhood where Miró had his studio, adds an intimate and spiritual dimension: the "possessed" is perhaps a reflection of the artist himself devoted to matter and to the energy of the sea.

The white background accentuates the contrast between the black stains -thick, gestural strokes, executed with carborundum and drypoint- and the areas of color: greens, reds and yellows, which are arranged spontaneously, almost like bursts of light. The work vibrates between order and chaos, evoking the struggle between form and the vital impulse that overflows it.

On a technical level, Miró explores the expressiveness of engraving to the maximum: the roughness of the carborundum confers a sculptural presence, while the aquatint softens the color fields and the drypoint accentuates the immediacy of the gesture. The result is a tense and poetic image, a perfect synthesis of his final language: matter, sign and emotion unified by the energy of the sea.

Internationally acclaimed following the retrospective that the MOMA in New York dedicated to him in 1941, Joan Miró has won awards such as the Grand Prizes of the Venice Biennale and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Prize for Painting, the Gold Medals of the Generalitat de Catalunya and of the Fine Arts, etc. His work can currently be seen at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, as well as in the main contemporary art museums around the world, such as the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the MOMA in New York, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the National Gallery in Washington, the MNAM in Paris and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.