JOAN MIRĂ“
original lithographs & etchings SYLVESTER FINE ART
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JOAN MIRÓ
I try to apply colours like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. Joan Miró
Joan Miró was one of the creative giants of 20th century art. Drawing on his fantastic universe of signs and symbols, he was able to create a magical world populated by strange configurations in vivid colours. He made many prints throughout his career, their accessibility being strongly in keeping with his socialist principles. In 1954 he was given the Venice Biennale print making prize. Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893, but from his mid 20s spent much of his time in Paris. His early work showed the influence of various modern movements – Fauvism, Cubism (he was a friend of Picasso) and Dadaism – but he was particularly associated with the Surrealists. Throughout his career Miró remained true to the basic Surrealist principle of releasing the creative forces of the unconscious mind from the control of logic and reason. Miró stood apart from other members of the Surrealist movement producing innovations in the field of
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Untitled (from Cartones suite), £950 lithograph, 1965, ed 1200, 29 x 41.5 cm
front cover:
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Peinture Murale, £795 lithograph, 1951, 26 x 79 cm
abstraction while using none of the superficial devices of the other Surrealists. Much of his work has a delightful touch of playfulness although he was also able to produce work of a more sombre or savage quality like that inspired by the Spanish Civil War. The Foundation Joan Miró was opened in 1975 on the heights of Montjuic overlooking Barcelona, his native city. It is designed both as a memorial museum, housing a collection of Miró’s works, and as a centre of artistic activity. Miró died in 1983.
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Untitled, £500
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Untitled, £750
Untitled, £500 7 x 75 cm
27 x 75 cm
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27 x 75 cm
Untitled, £750 75 x 27 cm
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Untitled, £750 75 x 27 cm
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Untitled, £500 27 x 75 cm
Les Pénalités De l'Enfer ou Les Nouvelles Hébrides lithographs, 1974, unsigned, ed 220
Both the Spanish artist Joan Miró and the French poet Robert Desnos were prominent figures in the Surrealist movement in Paris where they met in 1925 and became good friends. They apparently agreed in the 1920s that Miró would at sometime provide illustrations for a book by Desnos but the plans were never implemented because of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. During the latter Desnos was active in the French Resistance and was eventually arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and sent to various notorious concentration camps including Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Ironically Desnos survived the war only to die of typhoid a few weeks after the liberation of the camp where he was held in 1945.
Against that poignant background, nearly thirty years later Desnos’ widow approached Miró with the idea that he should indeed illustrate one of the poet’s unpublished works and they agreed to use Pénalités de l’Enfer ou Les Nouvelles-Hébrides (The Penalties of Hell or The New Hebrides). It was in fact Desnos’ first prose work which had been written in Morocco in 1922.
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Untitled, £475 37 x 27 cm
10 Untitled, £475 37 x 27 cm
Consequently in 1974 Miró produced his lithographs, mainly printed in colours, for an edition limited to 220 copies printed on Arches wove paper by Arte Adrien Maeght.
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11 Les Nobles à la Trappe, £1000
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12 La Revue, £1000
16 Untitled, £1250 13 Le Massacre du Roi de Pologne, £1000
14 Le Banquet, £1000
Ubu Roi
Le Courtisan Grotesque
lithographs, 1966, ed 75, 41 x 62 cm
etching & aquatints, 1974, ed 110, 41 x 28 cm
The drama Ubu Roi is generally recognised as a precursor of the theatre of the absurd and also as having had a great influence upon both the Dada and Surrealist art movements.
When Russian-born publisher and designer Ilia Zdanevitch, who published under the name Iliazd, rediscovered the work of obscure 17th century satirical writer Adrien de Montluc, he proposed that Joan Miró illustrate Montluc’s Le Courtisan Grotesque. Miró enthusiastically agreed in 1951 to provide colour etchings for the book. However, in 1961 Iliazd wrote despairingly to Miró, ‘…here it is ten years that I have waited for you to execute your ten plates according to the model that you accepted and approved.
In 1966 Miró produced 13 lithographic images of Ubu Roi. These were issued as three limited editions of 75 copies each. The editions were in different impressions namely, in colours, signed and numbered; without the black; numbered but unsigned; and finally without the colours, numbered and signed with a pencil monogram. Those shown here are from the the second and third of the editions.
17 Untitled, £1250
15 La Guerre, £3000 pencil monogram
… I believe, dear Miró, that we are at the end of the road. It is impossible to prolong this waiting without facing the risk that our Courtisan Grotesque will never appear.’ Indeed, it was not until 1974 that the book, Iliazd’s last, was finally published. All ended well between publisher and artist; on the eve of publication, Iliazd wrote to Miró, ‘It has taken 14 years, but the papers held up well and so did we.’
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18 Untitled, £850
20 Untitled, £850
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22 Untitled, £950
23 Untitled, £1250
24 Untitled, £950
25 Untitled, £950
19 Untitled, £850
21 Untitled, £850
Le Marteau sans Maître etching & aquatints, 1976, ed 215, 44 x 67 cm
Je Travaille Comme un Jardinier lithographs, 1963, ed 145, 38 x 28 cm
Le Marteau sans Maître (The Hammer without a Master) is a composition by the French composer Pierre Boulez. First performed in 1955, it was inspired by the surrealist poetry of René Char. In 1976 Miró in turn made his own surrealist response to it.
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27 Untitled, £1250
26 Miró Sculpteur, £995 28 Untitled, £1250
Miró Sculpteur
Maravillas con Variaciones Acrósticas en el Jardin de Miró
7 x lithographs, 1974, ed 1500, signed in plate, each 20 x 40 cm presented together in a folder
lithograph, 1975, signed in plate, 50 x 70 cm
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29 Untitled (Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi ), £1500 lithograph, 1966, ed 180, 42 x 64.5 cm
31 Untitled, £550 lithograph, 1956, 20.5 x 37 cm
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33 Femme et Oiseau, £950
34 Femme et Oiseaux dans la Nuit, £950
35 Personnage et Oiseaux 2, £950
36 Personnage et Oiseaux 1, £950
Cartones
Pochoir, hand-coloured through stencils, after Miró, printed by Daniel Jacomet.
30 Untitled, £745 lithograph, 1980, ed 145, 20.5 x 15.5 cm
32 Handmade Proverbs, £350 lithograph, 1970, signed in plate, 37.5 x 55 cm
pochoir, 1965, ed 1275, 31.5 x 21.5 cm
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38 Untitled V, £550 lithograph, 1977, 32 x 24.5 cm
39 Untitled XI, £850 lithograph, 1972, 33 x 25.5 cm
45 La Lumière de la Lame, £1250 etching & aquatint, 1962, ed 125, 9 x 13 cm
46 Saccades, £1250 etching & aquatint, 1962, ed 125, 10 x 13 cm
37 Untitled IV, £550 lithograph, 1977, 32 x 24.5 cm
41 Untitled, £650 lithograph, 1972, 33 x 25.5 cm
42 Untitled, £650 lithograph, 1963, 37.5 x 28 cm
40 Untitled IV, £650 lithograph, 1963, 37.5 x 28 cm
47 Untitled, £550 etching & aquatint, 1962, ed 125, 33 x 26 cm
43 Untitled, £750 lithograph, 1972, 32 x 25 cm
44 Untitled, £650 lithograph, 1963, 37.5 x 28 cm
48 Untitled, £550 etching & aquatint, 1962, ed 125, 33 x 26 cm
49 Ubu aux Baléares, £1500 lithograph, 1971, ed 120, 50.5 x 60 cm
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March 2016