JOAN MIRÒ Lot n° 41

Joan Miró Constellations 1959 Portfolio with one original color lithograph on wove paper with watermark "ARCHES" Color lithograph 29,9 x 23,8 cm (43,4 x 35,5 cm) The color lithograph is signed and numbered, the portfolio is signed and typographically numbered by Joan Miró and André Breton in the imprint. Together with text sheets with 22 poems in prose form by André Breton, preface, title page and imprint as well as 22 pochoirs after gouaches of the series "Constellations" by Joan Miró, these inserted in printed cover sheets and with index. As loose sheets resp. double sheets in printed original paper wrappers. In printed original canvas case (38 x 47 x 5 cm). Copy 294 of a total edition of 350 copies. Printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, published by Pierre Matisse, New York 1959 - Colour fresh preserved, the paper only minimally browned. Mourlot 193; Cramer Books 58 Under the title "Constellations" Joan Miró brought together a series of small-format gouaches created in Mont-roig del Camp and Palma in 1940 and 1941. The ensemble of these cosmic compositions with their fantastic figurations, bodies and stars is one of the artist's central work complexes and had a decisive influence on its reception in Europe and America. Miró's Constellations were the first European paintings to be shown after the Second World War, at the beginning of 1945 in Pierre Matisse's gallery in New York, where they caused a great stir. It is not surprising that Miró's all-over of different colors and forms as well as his preoccupation with variation and seriality had a great influence on the artists of the New York School, such as Jackson Pollock. The representative suite "Constellations" presented here, published somewhat later, once again underscores the serial character of this group of works in its compilation. Together with the texts by André Breton, the work is one of the artist's most sought-after portfolios.