Item Details:

TERRES DE GRAND FEU (LAND OF GREAT FIRE)                                                 FROM DERRIERE LE MIROIR (BEHIND THE MIRROR) SERIES

JOAN MIRO (1893-1983)

SURREALISM, 1960

Lithograph

Edition: 82/100

Publisher: Maeght, Paris. Imp. Mourlot,

Original Color Lithograph on Arches Paper, signed and numbered in pencil

Size: 30.0 x 24.75 in; 76.2 x 62.87 cm

Signed: Recto, lower right

In the present work is found many of the most often-occurring symbols utilized by Miro. When presented with a painting that isn’t realistic, it is just natural to want to understand it. In Miro there are no strict rules… We read its title and try to find some clue that gives us a starting point. With Miro that can often be easy, since he uses a particular clue to identify people in his paintings. Birds are the icons in Miro that connect reality and dream, because they can fly but they also touch the ground. Most of the time you’ll see them flying in the starry Mironian night, though. The evolution of birds in his art is quite interesting: from being shapes with recognizable wings and a beak, little by little they become simpler. Eventually they are simplified to lines representing the trajectory of the flight of that bird, rather than the animal itself. Whereas feet and eyes keep us connected to reality, what takes us to the dream world are the elements in the sky. The starry night, more often than the sun, that when appears is mostly during sunrise or sunset moments. Remember that the night is when we dream. Joan Miro’s artworks are dotted with stars. Often just 3 traits crossing at the center (a childish star of 6 points). But sometimes it’s a more elaborate star with a precise perimeter. In such cases stars can become characters, and hence get hair. And they can even become part of some hybrid animal, like the bird in the lower left here, easily identified with open beak and three feathers at top of head. Unlike Picasso, who was quite a playboy, Miro had a much more stable love life married to Pilar Juconsa since 1929. However, he paints women more often than men, and they are usually easy to recognize by their open sexes (vagina & ovum). You’ll recognize them for being an ovoid or tear shape, often divided in two halves, often each half of a different color (often red and black).