JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de... Lot 91

JOAN MIRÓ I FERRÀ (Barcelona, 1893 - Palma de Mallorca, 1983). "Barcelona series", 1972. Coloured pencils on card. Signed in the lower part. Measurements: 71 x 106 cm; 79 x 114 cm (frame). Cardboard on which the artist's original intervention can be seen, depicting one of his well-known symbols (the star) and a large signature. This work was produced by Joan Miró for the graphic edition of the "Barcelona" series, published by the Sala Gaspar in 1972. Miro's relationship with the legendary gallery, inaugurated in 1909 by Joan Gaspar i Xalabarder, was truly prolific, and he held numerous exhibitions, as well as creating various publishing projects. Joan Miró developed a characteristic atmosphere in his works, impregnated with primary impulses left over from his contacts with Dadaism and Surrealism. Thus, his paintings function as microcosms, symbolic models of the world that seek an understanding of the universe through the coexistence of atavistic impulses and artistic space, full of cultural reminiscences. Thus, his works should be considered as an expression of his sense of life, which is concretised plastically through the symbolism that he himself confers on the representation of certain beings and objects. By turning objects into symbols, Miró broke with the historical-narrative aspect, perspective and other traditional and realistic aspects of painting, leaving aside the description of reality. It is in this context that we can understand works as essential as this "Star and large signature", where the absolute protagonist is the message conveyed in a resounding manner, with nothing to diminish its impact. The star is a constant element throughout Miró's production; at times it is depicted as a stellar element per se, and at other times it symbolises the male presence, so that it is an ambivalent code, as a poetic expression of the vastness of the cosmos and the attraction that brings living beings together. On the other hand, his presence exemplifies the omnipresence in Miró's work of sublime forces, associated with a feeling of grandeur and cosmic mystery that has always impressed human beings. Joan Miró trained in Barcelona and made his individual debut in 1918 at the Galeries Dalmau. In 1920 he moved to Paris and met Picasso, Raynal, Max Jacob, Tzara and the Dadaists. There, under the influence of the surrealist poets and painters, he gradually matured his style; he tried 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 devoted a retrospective exhibition to him which was to be his definitive international consecration. Throughout his life he received numerous awards, such as the Grand Prizes at the Venice Biennale and the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, the Carnegie Prize for Painting in Venice, the Gold Medals of the Generalitat de Catalunya and of the Fine Arts, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Harvard and Barcelona. His work can currently be seen at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, 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.