JOAN MIRÓ
(Barcelona, Spain, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1983)
Untitled from the series Lithographs, Volume II,1975
1988 Edition
Lithograph
MAB’s permanent collection
Joan Miró, using automatism – a method that consists of generating spontaneous drawings to try to express the inner workings of the human psyche and the subconscious – together with color and shape, develops a symbolic language in complex compositions and lines. It combines abstract elements with recurring motifs such as birds, eyes, and the moon.
The artist comments:
For me a form is never something abstract; it’s always a sign of something. It’s always a man, a bird or something else. For me, painting is never form for form’s sake
– (Joan Miró, 1933)
In this piece, shapes such as the sphere represent intellectual life and pure thought, the triangle is a symbol of connection and relationship, the cone alludes to psychic totality and the eye to intelligence and spirit. As for color, the four elements are evoked: black (earth), green (water), red (fire) and yellow (air) (Juan Eduardo Cirlot, 1997).