Joan MIRO (1893-1983)
See also : Spain II Art on paper Music and dance Bird
Chronology : 1920-1929 1925 1927 1933 1938 1940-1949 1945 1953
Chronology : 1920-1929 1925 1927 1933 1938 1940-1949 1945 1953
1925 Miro's Hallucinations
2012 SOLD 17 M£ including premium
In 1924, Joan Miro is one of the signatories of the Manifeste du Surréalisme. The artist receives the highest possible compliment of André Breton: "Miro is the most surrealist of ourselves."
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting.
The literary and artistic expression must be free from conventions, but not indispensably spontaneous. The words of the poem escape without building a usual phrase. The language of the image, close to abstraction, invites for multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes?
Miro is no longer interested in reality. His themes are inspired by other poems or songs. On February 7 in London, Christie's sells "le corps de ma brune", estimated £ 6M. So amazing for its time, this oil on canvas made in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, is superimposing text and colors. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem of Apollinaire. Here is the link to the catalog.
This painting provides the key to all the later work, so often hermetic but always dreamlike, of Miro. When the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
POST SALE COMMENT
This is one of the most outstanding and rarest works of early Surrealism. It was sold for £ 17M including premium.
Indeed, the artist has lost interest in realism and is exploring the dream and the subconscious. Miro's approach is deeply original and will be recognized as such by Picasso. He is the first surrealist to transcend the boundaries between poetry and painting.
The literary and artistic expression must be free from conventions, but not indispensably spontaneous. The words of the poem escape without building a usual phrase. The language of the image, close to abstraction, invites for multiple interpretations.
If the poem deals with the female body, for example, the observer led on by the erotic force of the words will look for some marks, and find and lose. Those two spots of color : are they the breasts or are they the eyes?
Miro is no longer interested in reality. His themes are inspired by other poems or songs. On February 7 in London, Christie's sells "le corps de ma brune", estimated £ 6M. So amazing for its time, this oil on canvas made in 1925, 130 x 96 cm, is superimposing text and colors. The layout of the words is free, like in a poem of Apollinaire. Here is the link to the catalog.
This painting provides the key to all the later work, so often hermetic but always dreamlike, of Miro. When the letters will disappear from the field, the title will provide the link between the image and its multiple interpretations.
POST SALE COMMENT
This is one of the most outstanding and rarest works of early Surrealism. It was sold for £ 17M including premium.
1925 Miro walking into Pataphysics
2012 SOLD 13.7 M$ including premium
In his studio located Rue Blomet, Miro is a neighbor of the most original intellectuals of Paris. In 1925, these young people are not satisfied with any academicism and wish to integrate the absurd within their system of thought.
Surrealism is just born but pataphysics, that parody of metaphysics and of all serious systems, had been started in 1898 by Alfred Jarry with his calculation of the area of God.
Miro wants to push his work into a new semiotic and manages to attract the admiration of Breton. He is young and single, and when walking in the streets of Paris he seeks to decipher the mystery of the woman.
On November 7 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm, entitled Peinture (femme, journal, chien), estimated $ 12M. At that time, the title is of considerable importance in the art of Miro. In the first reading of this work, the image and the word are matching.
It is a painting, of course. The woman is a silhouette in bodice and skirt, the other elements are stylized including an absurd hat and the head replaced by a red heart that reflects the desires of the artist. She is walking the dog and waving the newspaper, a trapezoid whose text is limited to three letters, JOU, common start for JOUrnal (newspaper) and JOUeur (player).
The first owner of this painting was Raymond Queneau, who will be the most important pataphysician and a great shaker of the French language. Aged 22 in 1925, he was already frequenting the circle of the Surrealists. Finding a meaning to the mysterious JOU and to the symbolism of the heart-head certainly amazed him.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price for this nice painting that well demonstrates the intellectual brainstorms of its time: $ 13.7 million including premium.
Surrealism is just born but pataphysics, that parody of metaphysics and of all serious systems, had been started in 1898 by Alfred Jarry with his calculation of the area of God.
Miro wants to push his work into a new semiotic and manages to attract the admiration of Breton. He is young and single, and when walking in the streets of Paris he seeks to decipher the mystery of the woman.
On November 7 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm, entitled Peinture (femme, journal, chien), estimated $ 12M. At that time, the title is of considerable importance in the art of Miro. In the first reading of this work, the image and the word are matching.
It is a painting, of course. The woman is a silhouette in bodice and skirt, the other elements are stylized including an absurd hat and the head replaced by a red heart that reflects the desires of the artist. She is walking the dog and waving the newspaper, a trapezoid whose text is limited to three letters, JOU, common start for JOUrnal (newspaper) and JOUeur (player).
The first owner of this painting was Raymond Queneau, who will be the most important pataphysician and a great shaker of the French language. Aged 22 in 1925, he was already frequenting the circle of the Surrealists. Finding a meaning to the mysterious JOU and to the symbolism of the heart-head certainly amazed him.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price for this nice painting that well demonstrates the intellectual brainstorms of its time: $ 13.7 million including premium.
1927 The Blue Period of Joan Miro
2012 SOLD 23.5 M£ including premium
Miro was the most abstract of the surrealists and the most surreal of the abstract. His use of geometric shapes is as hermetic as the artistic grammar of Kandinsky. The title of the work invites the viewer to a certain vision that is never the only possible interpretation.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19. Here is the link to the catalog.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky, preceding by 70 years the shelters for aliens by Cai Guo-Qiang.
Forgotten for 40 years in the estate of a great collector, Peinture (étoile bleue) got a nice media success when it reappeared in Paris. It was sold € 11.6 million including premium by Aguttes on December 21, 2007. Certainly this is a masterpiece by Miro, but its new estimate, £ 15M, is ambitious.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
In 2007, the Parisian observers rightly considered Peinture (étoile bleue) as a masterpiece of Miro. The result, quoted above, was then the highest price recorded for the artist at auction.
And in 2012, Sotheby's has largely won their challenge: £ 23.5 million including premium.
This artist always original and often difficult enters the short list of the most outstanding painters of the twentieth century.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19. Here is the link to the catalog.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky, preceding by 70 years the shelters for aliens by Cai Guo-Qiang.
Forgotten for 40 years in the estate of a great collector, Peinture (étoile bleue) got a nice media success when it reappeared in Paris. It was sold € 11.6 million including premium by Aguttes on December 21, 2007. Certainly this is a masterpiece by Miro, but its new estimate, £ 15M, is ambitious.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
In 2007, the Parisian observers rightly considered Peinture (étoile bleue) as a masterpiece of Miro. The result, quoted above, was then the highest price recorded for the artist at auction.
And in 2012, Sotheby's has largely won their challenge: £ 23.5 million including premium.
This artist always original and often difficult enters the short list of the most outstanding painters of the twentieth century.
1933 Painting Assassinated
2017 SOLD for $ 23.4M including premium
Since his surrealist period Joan Miro knows that painting is no more than colors on a support. He begins to name his own paintings with their elementary description : "Peinture", sometimes with a subtitle. His desire is poetic. In 1927 he is very close to abstraction with pictures of a nocturnal atmosphere where hardly perceptible spots and lines coexist.
For the surrealists this trend is an inadmissible drift. Miro does not agree with the communist affiliations of the group. The break is snarling. When Miro announced to Tériade in 1930 that he wanted to assassinate the painting, it meant that he desired to define a new art, alone, without the influence of any past or present school.
For the next two years he tries collages that do not satisfy him. In early 1933 in his mother's apartment in Barcelona, he defines a two-step process for a homogeneous series of 18 artworks. He prepares 18 maquettes by gluing folded or crumpled papers. Each oil on canvas will be inspired by one of these models without being a copy. The title "Peinture" is reused for this series.
This post-Dadaist process may seem complex compared to direct painting. Miro knows that his imagination is unlimited. He probably wanted to bring a guide for avoiding any figuration. He expresses his subconscious by a composition similar to the 1927 Peintures except that the spots inspired by the collages are brightly colored, appearing as abstract objects floating ahead of the night.
A Peinture 146 x 115 cm made in 1933 was sold for $ 11M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2013. An oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm from this series of Peintures is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 31 A.
The Constellations painted in response to the outbreak of World War II are similar in design to the Peintures of 1927 and 1933. The dream of the starry night is now confessed by the artist and the mythical theme of the constellation brings some figuration.
For the surrealists this trend is an inadmissible drift. Miro does not agree with the communist affiliations of the group. The break is snarling. When Miro announced to Tériade in 1930 that he wanted to assassinate the painting, it meant that he desired to define a new art, alone, without the influence of any past or present school.
For the next two years he tries collages that do not satisfy him. In early 1933 in his mother's apartment in Barcelona, he defines a two-step process for a homogeneous series of 18 artworks. He prepares 18 maquettes by gluing folded or crumpled papers. Each oil on canvas will be inspired by one of these models without being a copy. The title "Peinture" is reused for this series.
This post-Dadaist process may seem complex compared to direct painting. Miro knows that his imagination is unlimited. He probably wanted to bring a guide for avoiding any figuration. He expresses his subconscious by a composition similar to the 1927 Peintures except that the spots inspired by the collages are brightly colored, appearing as abstract objects floating ahead of the night.
A Peinture 146 x 115 cm made in 1933 was sold for $ 11M including premium by Christie's on May 8, 2013. An oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm from this series of Peintures is estimated $ 18M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 31 A.
The Constellations painted in response to the outbreak of World War II are similar in design to the Peintures of 1927 and 1933. The dream of the starry night is now confessed by the artist and the mythical theme of the constellation brings some figuration.
1933 Miro, Poet of Painting
2013 SOLD 11 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
A "peinture" by Miro remained unsold on February 8, 2012 at Sotheby's on an estimate of £ 7M. It appears again at auction, now at Christie's with an estimate of $ 10M. I repeat here below the discussion of last year, updated with the identification of the next sale.
Miro was the poet of art, admired by the Surrealists in the early days of their movement. The independence of hiscreative process would however be disagreed in the group.
In 1933 he played with colored paper, featuring them on surfaces, creating shapes connected by lines, and at the end glueing them. Miro's collages are a new artistic language unrelated to the Cubist researches of dispositioning plans. Once the collage done, he painted the same forms on fairly large canvas.
The poet knew how to excite the imagination by the choice of the title of the painting. The oil on canvas, 146 x 115cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, has an evocative title. It is simply "Peinture". If there were a suprematism in poetry, Miro would be its champion.
Really, this is nothing but a painting. Something like a Kandinsky without hidden semiotic intentions. The observer never had as much freedom as in the abstract works of Miro. If he wants to see something other than a painting, hecan, and the artist wishes that he does it. The success of the exhibition of Peintures of Miro by Pierre Matisse in NewYork was dazzling.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 11M including premium, near the lower estimate, this "peinture" came back to its fair price.
A "peinture" by Miro remained unsold on February 8, 2012 at Sotheby's on an estimate of £ 7M. It appears again at auction, now at Christie's with an estimate of $ 10M. I repeat here below the discussion of last year, updated with the identification of the next sale.
Miro was the poet of art, admired by the Surrealists in the early days of their movement. The independence of hiscreative process would however be disagreed in the group.
In 1933 he played with colored paper, featuring them on surfaces, creating shapes connected by lines, and at the end glueing them. Miro's collages are a new artistic language unrelated to the Cubist researches of dispositioning plans. Once the collage done, he painted the same forms on fairly large canvas.
The poet knew how to excite the imagination by the choice of the title of the painting. The oil on canvas, 146 x 115cm, for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8, has an evocative title. It is simply "Peinture". If there were a suprematism in poetry, Miro would be its champion.
Really, this is nothing but a painting. Something like a Kandinsky without hidden semiotic intentions. The observer never had as much freedom as in the abstract works of Miro. If he wants to see something other than a painting, hecan, and the artist wishes that he does it. The success of the exhibition of Peintures of Miro by Pierre Matisse in NewYork was dazzling.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold $ 11M including premium, near the lower estimate, this "peinture" came back to its fair price.
1938 A Catalan Sky
2019 SOLD for £ 12M including premium
Joan Miro is a poet of graphic art. He would have liked his bright colors to express hopes in front of the social difficulties of Spain, but a poet cannot be a warrior. In October 1936, just after the outbreak of the civil war, he goes into exile in Paris.
In the following year, his political commitment becomes visible. In the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he paints El Segador, a set of panels of 5.5m total height. The reaper is a symbol of Catalan nationalism. He screams his desperation, not far from the horse of Guernica.
L'Air is an oil on canvas painted in 1938. Its small size, 55 x 46 cm, is probably correlated with the difficulties of working in exile in an exiguous studio.
The composition is divided into two registers. The lower part is red and gold, the colors of the Catalan flag, slightly different from the red and yellow of Spain. The golden landscape is inhabited by an ugly red snake with a simplified effigy of Franco that approaches a biomorphic creature to swallow or despoil it.
The horizon is composed of three volcanoes, two of which have open craters. They project in the night blue sky other biomorphic emanations that float freely therein. In this Air of hope, a human face smiles, hardly visible in the eye of a sort of giant chimera.
L'Air was discussed in this column before being sold for $ 10.3M including premium by Christie's on November 3, 2010, lot 25. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In the following year, his political commitment becomes visible. In the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he paints El Segador, a set of panels of 5.5m total height. The reaper is a symbol of Catalan nationalism. He screams his desperation, not far from the horse of Guernica.
L'Air is an oil on canvas painted in 1938. Its small size, 55 x 46 cm, is probably correlated with the difficulties of working in exile in an exiguous studio.
The composition is divided into two registers. The lower part is red and gold, the colors of the Catalan flag, slightly different from the red and yellow of Spain. The golden landscape is inhabited by an ugly red snake with a simplified effigy of Franco that approaches a biomorphic creature to swallow or despoil it.
The horizon is composed of three volcanoes, two of which have open craters. They project in the night blue sky other biomorphic emanations that float freely therein. In this Air of hope, a human face smiles, hardly visible in the eye of a sort of giant chimera.
L'Air was discussed in this column before being sold for $ 10.3M including premium by Christie's on November 3, 2010, lot 25. It is estimated £ 10M for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1940 Poetry of the Constellations
2017 SOLD for £ 24.5M including premium
Joan Miro did not want to engage in politics but the tragic events forced his hand. His participation in the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the 1937 Paris Exhibition did not go unnoticed. He feared retaliation and moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer in 1939.
Varengeville is one of the prettiest villages on the Normandy coast. Braque has his workshop and spends summers there. Calder is a frequent visitor. In this small land's end Miro calms his anxieties by contemplating the immensity of the night sky.
The personalization of the groupings of stars is one of the oldest poetic themes of our civilizations. Miro is not an astrologer but he is a poet. With the exceptional freedom of his imagination he superimposes on the sky the images of his fantasy.
In January 1940 Miro begins a series of artworks on the theme of the Constellations. They will all be on paper in the same size, 38 x 46 cm. The background is prepared by splashes of gouache and oil paint, more or less dark. The crescent moon and a few stars are the spectacular elements in bright colors accompanied by floating symbolic or abstract forms. The constellation, woman or bird, is a figure in thin lines surrounded by scrolls, scarcely more visible than a watermark.
The artist conceived from the outset this series as a coherent whole. The use of a a small and light format was premonitory. When he fled France to return to Spain in May 1940 he could take in his luggage the entire set : ten finished works and the pieces of paper that he will be use for the thirteen subsequent works.
The series of Constellations was completed in September 1941. Miro kept the secret until an exhibition in New York in 1945. Pollock was convinced by a possible non-figurative artistic transposition of an observable reality. With the Constellations of Miro modern art has just crossed the Atlantic.
On June 21 in London, Sotheby's sells as lot 45 the eighth opus of Miro's Constellations, dated 13 April 1940. Its unusually simple title, Femme et Oiseaux, prefigures the favorite themes of the artist for the rest of his career. In this sky that calls for peace, Joan Miro is not calmed : the woman howls.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Varengeville is one of the prettiest villages on the Normandy coast. Braque has his workshop and spends summers there. Calder is a frequent visitor. In this small land's end Miro calms his anxieties by contemplating the immensity of the night sky.
The personalization of the groupings of stars is one of the oldest poetic themes of our civilizations. Miro is not an astrologer but he is a poet. With the exceptional freedom of his imagination he superimposes on the sky the images of his fantasy.
In January 1940 Miro begins a series of artworks on the theme of the Constellations. They will all be on paper in the same size, 38 x 46 cm. The background is prepared by splashes of gouache and oil paint, more or less dark. The crescent moon and a few stars are the spectacular elements in bright colors accompanied by floating symbolic or abstract forms. The constellation, woman or bird, is a figure in thin lines surrounded by scrolls, scarcely more visible than a watermark.
The artist conceived from the outset this series as a coherent whole. The use of a a small and light format was premonitory. When he fled France to return to Spain in May 1940 he could take in his luggage the entire set : ten finished works and the pieces of paper that he will be use for the thirteen subsequent works.
The series of Constellations was completed in September 1941. Miro kept the secret until an exhibition in New York in 1945. Pollock was convinced by a possible non-figurative artistic transposition of an observable reality. With the Constellations of Miro modern art has just crossed the Atlantic.
On June 21 in London, Sotheby's sells as lot 45 the eighth opus of Miro's Constellations, dated 13 April 1940. Its unusually simple title, Femme et Oiseaux, prefigures the favorite themes of the artist for the rest of his career. In this sky that calls for peace, Joan Miro is not calmed : the woman howls.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1945 Hope in the Night
2018 SOLD for $ 22.6M including premium
From 1934 to 1945 Miro appears as a hypersensitive witness to the tragedies of his time : the social crisis followed by the Spanish Civil war and by the Franco regime, and the Second World War.
In January 1945 it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. Miro accompanies this hope in a series of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion, the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013.
On November 15 in New York, Phillips sells a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4 estimated $ 12M. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
The 14th and last opus of this war series is dated May 7, 1945, the day of the unconditional surrender of Germany. Normal life has restarted. Miro makes two optimistic paintings on a black background, Femme entendant de la musique on May 11 and Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique on May 26.
In January 1945 it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. Miro accompanies this hope in a series of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion, the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013.
On November 15 in New York, Phillips sells a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4 estimated $ 12M. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
The 14th and last opus of this war series is dated May 7, 1945, the day of the unconditional surrender of Germany. Normal life has restarted. Miro makes two optimistic paintings on a black background, Femme entendant de la musique on May 11 and Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique on May 26.
1945 The Sound of Victory
2018 SOLD for $ 21.7M including premium
The war in Europe and the political situation in Spain deeply disturbed Joan Miro. Escaping in the contemplation of the stars, he had made his Constellations series and had hidden them. He then devotes his creativity to the entanglement of three themes : woman, star, bird.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro is encouraged by this success and restarts painting on large canvas.
On February 1, 1945 Miro paints an oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm under the revealing title Femme rêvant de l'évasion. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. This artwork was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013.
On May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of Germany, Miro paints a 130 x 162 cm oil on canvas titled Femme entendant de la musique. Five reserves on a black background are each inhabited by a hybrid calligraphy that is both a musician and a musical note. The dark background, scarce in that year in Miro's art, is a dynamic evocation of the atmosphere of a cabaret.
Femme entendant de la musique is estimated $ 10M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 A. It had been sold for $ 3.5M by Christie's on November 14, 1990.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro is encouraged by this success and restarts painting on large canvas.
On February 1, 1945 Miro paints an oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm under the revealing title Femme rêvant de l'évasion. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. This artwork was sold for £ 8.4M including premium by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013.
On May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of Germany, Miro paints a 130 x 162 cm oil on canvas titled Femme entendant de la musique. Five reserves on a black background are each inhabited by a hybrid calligraphy that is both a musician and a musical note. The dark background, scarce in that year in Miro's art, is a dynamic evocation of the atmosphere of a cabaret.
Femme entendant de la musique is estimated $ 10M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 A. It had been sold for $ 3.5M by Christie's on November 14, 1990.
1953 The Immobile Movement of the Bird
2015 SOLD for £ 9.2M including premium
In 1953, Joan Miro consciously deploys the enthusiasm of a child. The dark years of war and activism are over, only remains the need to express freedom. He is 60 years old.
The careful technique of the artist is not incompatible with the ampleness and speed of his gesture which had inspired Pollock. His pictorial grammar is childish. The composition is a search for a motion that would not contradict the immobility of the canvas.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 90 x 116 cm painted in 1953, lot 116 estimated £ 7M.
The title-poem, L'Oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l'arbre argenté (the bird with the deployed plumage flies to the silver tree), describes the image, which is not always the case in the surrealist art of Miro and suggests that the action was chosen very early in the design of this artwork.
The background provides the atmosphere of a peaceful twilight with the night coming from the right. A dynamic although imaginary arch supporting the upper part of the scenery leads the bird to the tree in a move that will cross through the crescent moon.
Miro does not accept empty spaces in his paintings. The picture is completed by stars stylized as snowflakes and a foreground with two important figures including some anthropomorphic features.
The careful technique of the artist is not incompatible with the ampleness and speed of his gesture which had inspired Pollock. His pictorial grammar is childish. The composition is a search for a motion that would not contradict the immobility of the canvas.
On February 4 in London, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 90 x 116 cm painted in 1953, lot 116 estimated £ 7M.
The title-poem, L'Oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l'arbre argenté (the bird with the deployed plumage flies to the silver tree), describes the image, which is not always the case in the surrealist art of Miro and suggests that the action was chosen very early in the design of this artwork.
The background provides the atmosphere of a peaceful twilight with the night coming from the right. A dynamic although imaginary arch supporting the upper part of the scenery leads the bird to the tree in a move that will cross through the crescent moon.
Miro does not accept empty spaces in his paintings. The picture is completed by stars stylized as snowflakes and a foreground with two important figures including some anthropomorphic features.
