Joan Miró

JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de Mallorca, 1983).
Untitled. Portfolio "Album 21". 1978
Lithograph on Arches paper, copy 30/75.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Inventoried in the BBVA Spain Collection (inventory number 557136).
Measurements: 63 x 50 cm; 94 x 80 cm (frame).

This important lithograph by Miró is part of an artistic dialogue. It belongs to "Album 21", a collaborative project published by the famous Maeght gallery in Paris in 1978. The work illustrates the verses of Cuban writer Carlos Franqui, demonstrating Miró's deep interest in the written word and poetry throughout his career. The image shares the lyrical rhythm of the text.

Made when Miró was already 85 years old, the display of compositional freedom is commendable. At this stage, Miró sheds any academic rigidity. The work reflects an effusive gesturality, connecting directly with the energy of abstract expressionism. The line transmits energy and movement. The composition recovers the spirit of his works from the 1920's. Miró recreates a fantastic world populated by creatures that seem to come out of a child's imagination.

The figure with a large circular head, beak and ovoid body, together with the stairs and floating spirals, invite the viewer to evasion. It is a playful reality, without laws of gravity or logical perspective.

The visual finish suggests a quick and improvised stroke of pencil or wax on paper: he manages to make a complex printing technique look like a spontaneous and fresh drawing, which is proof of his absolute mastery of the graphic medium.

Joan Miró trained in Barcelona, and made his individual debut in 1918, at the Dalmau Galleries. In 1920 he moved to Paris and met Picasso, Raynal, Max Jacob, Tzara and the Dadaists. There, under the influence of surrealist poets and painters, he matures his style; he tries to transpose surrealist poetry to the visual, based on memory, fantasy and the irrational. His third exhibition in Paris, in 1928, was his first great triumph: the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired two of his works. He returned to Spain in 1941, and that same year the museum dedicated a retrospective to him that would be his definitive international consecration. Throughout his life he received numerous 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 the Fine Arts, and was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the universities of Harvard and Barcelona. His work can currently be seen at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, as well as at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, 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. This lithograph shows us the most essentialist Miró in his search for minimal and suggestive forms. The ranges limited to a few colors applied on flat and shiny surfaces, combine to evoke the lyrical communion of man and the environment.