Joan Miró

Henriette Gomès, Paris
Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva
Robert Elkon Gallery, New York (acquired in 1969)
Galerie Bonnier, Geneva
David Bonnier, Stockholm (acquired from the above by 1972)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1981

New York, Robert Elkon Gallery, 1969
Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Miró, 1972, no. 7
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Joan Miró: A Creator of New Worlds, 1998, no. 51, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Humlebæk, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Joan Miró, 1998-99, no. 90, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount along the top edge. There are artist's pin-holes at intervals along all four edges, a 1cm. repaired tear towards the lower-left corner of the sheet and a 1cm. tear to the lower centre of the left edge (neither tears are visible when framed). Apart from some minor surface dirt to the edges and some light undulation to the sheet, intrinsic to the drying process of the medium, this work is in good condition.
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The onset of the Spanish Civil War exiled Miró to France between 1936 and 1940, during which time he executed some of his most potent and expressive compositions, of which the present work is a striking example. The years spent in Paris, witnessing from afar the campaign of General Franco, were a catalyst for the production of works from the so-called Sauvage period. As in the present work, their subjects portray bitterness, protesting against Franco and fascism.

Unlike his fellow artists from the Surrealist movement, Miró shunned categorisation or restrictive labels, preferring to allow his art to reflect nature and environment. The aggression, sexuality and violence that began to manifest itself within the artist's compositions in the late 1930s in response to his anger at the political situation in his homeland, often took the form of deformed and grotesque human characters.

Reflecting the dreamlike and indeterminate nature of his compositions, the title of the present work, Femmes armées de faucilles, was carefully chosen by Miró to 'intensify the lyrical atmosphere, or subtly extend the dimensions of the work' (Roland Penrose, Miró, London, 1970, p. 180). The biomorphic figures of the present work, brandishing sickles, are especially haunting due to their careful and meticulous treatment and are highly characteristic of Miró's work of this period. Although Miró's work often appears abstract and without clear narrative, this was not the artist's intention; 'form for me is never something abstract, it is always a token of something. It is always a figure, a bird, or something else' (quoted in Joan Miró: A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), New York, 1987, p. 52).

Miró's compositions of the late 1930s contain oblique but pointed references to the increasing instability of the world political situation. The level of intensity and clarity achieved in his work at this time is matched only by the great series to follow, the Constellations. While the context under which these great works were painted is past, their power remains undiminished.