- 30
Joan Miró
Estimate
750,000 - 1,000,000 USD
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Description
- Joan Miró
- Peinture
- Signed Miró and dated 1927 (lower right); signed Joan Miró and dated 1927 on the reverse
- Oil on canvas
- 6 1/4 by 8 5/8 in.
- 16 by 22 cm
Provenance
Galerie Arditti, Paris
Perls Galleries, New York
Walter Bareiss, New York (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 17, 1983, lot 185)
Charles R. Bronfman (acquired at the above sale)
Gifted from the above
Literature
Jacques Dupin, Miró, Paris, 1961, no. 223, illustrated p. 502
Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró, Life and Work, New York, 1962, no. 223, illustrated p. 518
Pierre Gimferrer, Les arrels de Miró, Barcelona, 1993, no. 389, p. 352
Jacques Dupin & Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró, Catalogue raisonné. Paintings, vol. I, Argenton-sur-Creuse, 1999, no. 279, illustrated p. 208
Condition
Very good condition. Original canvas. Under UV light, there are a few visible retouches in the blue background.
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.
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.
Catalogue Note
Miró's 'dream paintings'; works from the mid-1920s that are characterized by their rich, blue background, are considered his most important and groundbreaking works. These pictures demonstrate his new visual idiom, first used in works such as Peinture-Poésie, in which he declares that blue is the color of his dreams. The style steadily evolved towards the state of perfect harmony found in the present work in which individual motifs are freely suspended on an ultramarine blue ground, finely delineated, and free of literal translation or representation.
The intensely rich blue used in many of the 'dream paintings' is the quintessential feature of works from this period and was immensely influential to a later generation of artists such as Yves Klein and Anish Kapoor. Isabelle Monod-Fontaine writes: "the colour blue (or azul as Miró termed it, in Spanish derived from Arabic) is generally associated with spirituality, implicitly referring to an 'above' of mellifluous whisperings, something like Mallarmé's Azure" (Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, in Joan Miró, 1917 -1934 (exhibition catalogue), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 2004, p. 71).
Miró's contemporaries marvelled at Surrealist paintings from the 1920s, and noted that minimalism could result in extraordinarily powerful works. In 1959, Alberto Giacometti recalled Miró's pictures from this era, noting "For me, it was the greatest liberation. Anything lighter, more airy, more detached, I had never seen. In a way, it was absolutely perfect. Miró could not put down a dot without it being in just the right place. He was so much a painter, through and through, that he could just leave three blobs of colour on the canvas and it became a painting, that was a painting" (quoted in Joan Miro, 1917-1934 (exhibition catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, 2004, p. 212).
The intensely rich blue used in many of the 'dream paintings' is the quintessential feature of works from this period and was immensely influential to a later generation of artists such as Yves Klein and Anish Kapoor. Isabelle Monod-Fontaine writes: "the colour blue (or azul as Miró termed it, in Spanish derived from Arabic) is generally associated with spirituality, implicitly referring to an 'above' of mellifluous whisperings, something like Mallarmé's Azure" (Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, in Joan Miró, 1917 -1934 (exhibition catalogue), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 2004, p. 71).
Miró's contemporaries marvelled at Surrealist paintings from the 1920s, and noted that minimalism could result in extraordinarily powerful works. In 1959, Alberto Giacometti recalled Miró's pictures from this era, noting "For me, it was the greatest liberation. Anything lighter, more airy, more detached, I had never seen. In a way, it was absolutely perfect. Miró could not put down a dot without it being in just the right place. He was so much a painter, through and through, that he could just leave three blobs of colour on the canvas and it became a painting, that was a painting" (quoted in Joan Miro, 1917-1934 (exhibition catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, 2004, p. 212).