Joan Miró

JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de Mallorca, 1983).
Untitled. 26.XI.1974
Model (original drawing) for carborundum etching from the Espriu Miró series of 1975, n. 874.
Ballpoint pen on paper.
Dated.
With certificate of authenticity from the publisher: Sala Gaspar (Miquel Gaspar).
Measurements: 27 x 21 cm; 55 x 40 cm (frame).

Original drawing by Miró that served as a model or sketch for one of the carborundum etchings of the "Espriu-Miró" series. This consisted of an illustrated book, published by Sala Gaspar in 1975, with engravings made by Miró to accompany Salvador Espriu's poems. A bird with synthetic lines raises its head and with its large round eye looks at the starry sky. Stars and winged figures were prototypical forms of the Catalan artist, expression of his vital philosophy that he knew how to summarize in simple images, and that in his transfer to engraving would be filled with his characteristic primary colors. In the seventies, to which this drawing belongs, Miró gave preeminence to works on paper and graphic work, even temporarily abandoning painting due to depression, which allowed him to delve into more intimate formats, as well as experimentation with aquatint and related techniques.

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.