Joan Miró

Galerie Maeght, Paris
Dino Fabbri, Milan
Sale: Christie's, New York, November 2, 1963, lot 60
Pescali Collection (and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 28, 1978, lot 51)
Ogawa Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 17, 1998, lot 452
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, November 5, 2008, lot 421
Acquired at the above sale

Turin, Galleria Gissi, Protagonisti del XX secolo, 1973-74, no. 41

Enrico Crispolti, Il Surrealismo, Milan, 1969, illustrated pl. XX
Michel Tapié, Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1970, no. 160, illustrated in color
Jacques Dupin & Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró, Catalogue raisonné. Paintings, 1959-1968, vol. IV, Paris, 2002, no. 1258, illustrated in color p. 201

Work is in generally good condition. Executed on hide which has been backed with canvas. Originally fastened with nails at 1/2 inch intervals around entire perimeter (nail holes still visible). This may have cause tension leading to cracking in the surface of the now brittle hide. Numerous cracks are visible, particularly near edges. Some cracks have been repaired and retouched.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

When he painted the present work in 1967, Miró was primarily concerned with reducing his pictorial language to its essentials. "Through this rarefaction and seeming lack of prudence," explains his biographer Jacques Dupin, "the canvas' pictorial energy was in fact magnified, and his painting strikingly reaffirmed.  This process also seemed like a breath of fresh air, or an ecstatic present from which new signs, colors, and the full freedom of gesture surged forth. By limiting the colors of his palette, Miró's enduring themes yielded works of various sizes, proportions, rhythms, and resonances" (Jacques Dupin, Miró, Barcelona, 1993, pp. 337-38).

Miró's own reflection on the artistic process further articulates his late style: "silence is denial of a noise—but the smallest noise in the midst of silence becomes enormous. The same process makes me look for noise hidden in silence, the movement in immobility, life in inanimate things, the infinite and the finite, forms in a void, and myself in anonymity" (Margit Rowell, ed., Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 253). Miró builds the present composition using a pictorial lexicon of signs and symbols, while still referencing recognizable objects, in this case, the female figure. Working with thick lines and monochromatic spaces as his central compositional elements, Miró fully explores the possibilities of movement within a two-dimensional field.