Joan Miró

JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de Mallorca, 1983).
"Manoletina" 1969.
Etching and aquatint on paper, copy 70/75.
Signed and justified by hand.
Maeght editeur, Paris.
Measurements: 69,5 x 104 cm; 102,5 x 137,5 cm (frame).

Created in 1969, this etching and carborundum aquatint was published by Maeght editeur, Paris. Eyes, birds and stars are integrated in a composition that seems to be in continuous movement thanks to the fluidity of the figures, which seem to perform an intricate dance before our eyes. The free and pseudo-abstract forms are combined with the use of vibrant colors and thick black strokes that seem to be the result of the use of the surrealist technique of the automatic stroke.

Joan Miró was trained in Barcelona, and made his individual debut in 1918, in 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.