Marrying a bold application of pure color with his signature black line, reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy, Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit is a vivacious composition from Miró’s mature years. Demonstrative of this Eastern influence (Miró was to have his first retrospective in Japan this same year) the present work also responds to the growing influence of Abstract Expressionism, while recalling many of the artist’s most salient motifs from the early 1940s. Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit reveals an artist who remains unfalteringly experimental in his desire to push painterly boundaries, and yet irrevocably loyal to his unique visual lexicon.

Painted in 1966, Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit explores some of the artist’s most enduring motifs: the figure, the moon and the stars. Although Miró had first introduced some of his distinctly individual motifs into his paintings of 1917, it wasn’t until his celebrated Constellations of 1941 that his visual language took flight (see fig. 1). In Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit, the presence of the moon and the star alongside the floating linear signifiers, suggests these famed Constellations. Miró combines dream-like imagery with the use of black to evoke the celestial and his lyrical forms allude to the intrigue of the nocturnal. In contrast to these earlier compositions, Miró employs a bolder, more simplified use of line. It is in the thickly demarcated lines of Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit that Miró evokes the gestural motions of the titular figures, while simultaneously evading interpretation. Demonstrating the expressive power of Miró’s line, the present work deftly borders representation and abstraction: “It might be a dog, a woman, or whatever. I don’t really care. Of course, while I am painting, I see a woman or a bird in my mind, indeed, very tangibly a woman or a bird. Afterward, it’s up to you” (J. Miró & G. Raillard, Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves, Paris, 1977, p. 128).

Although never an official member of the Surrealist group, Miró imbued his brushstrokes with a spontaneity similar to the automatism favored by André Breton. These lines formed a defining feature of Miró’s work and in the present composition they can also be linked with the rise of Abstract Expressionism. Miró first became acquainted with the Abstract Expressionists while visiting Alexander Calder, Yves Tanguy and Marcel Duchamp in New York in 1947. Several of the painters from this movement, including Jackson Pollock, were crediting Miró as their stylistic inspiration. Miró, in turn, was profoundly moved by their technique and aesthetic beliefs: "… it showed me the liberties we can take, and how far we can go, beyond the limits. In a sense, it freed me" (Miró quoted in J. Dupin, Miró, New York, 1993, p. 303; see fig. 2). Consequently, his work from the 1950s onwards responded to the enthusiasm and innovations in painterly expression generated by this movement. The spontaneous application of paint in the background of Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit presents a dynamic and textured backdrop upon which Miró’s forms sit. For Miró, however, form could never be entirely abstract and in this sense he remained true to his style. Compositions such as Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit, remain rooted in the representational: “For me a form is never something abstract; it is always a sign of something. It is always a man, a bird, or something else. For me painting is never form for form's sake” (Miró quoted in M. Rowell, Joan Miró, Selected Writings and Interviews, Boston, 1992, p. 207).

Balancing the kaleidoscopic application of paint with an elegant calligraphic line, Couple d’amoureux dans la nuit demonstrates an exploration of the medium’s versatility and Miró’s deep understanding of his craft. The result is a beautifully oneiric image, synthesizing Abstract Expressionism with his distinctly poetic iconography. The symbolic use of color and form, tethered to the representational encapsulates the freedom marveled at by Alberto Giacometti when he viewed Miró’s work: “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 leave three spots of color on the canvas and it became a painting” (quoted in Joan Miró, 1917 – 1934: La Naissance du monde (exhibition catalogue), Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2004, p. 212).