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Lot Essay
Jacques Dupin has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Executed in July 1963, Personnages et oiseaux reflects the exciting developments that Joan Miró's art underwent in the early 1960s. An energetic work composed of sweeping black brushstrokes interspersed with patches of bright primary colour, in its very graphic and direct pictorial style, Personnages et oiseaux presents a clear illustration of the artist's desire to 'attain a maximum of intensity with a minimum of means' (Miró, quoted in Y. Taillandier, 'Miró: je travaille come un jardinièr', XX siècle, 15 February 1959, reproduced in M. Rowell, ed., Joan Miró - Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 251).
In 1956 Miró permanently settled in his wife - Pilar's - native Majorca where he finally realized his long-held dream of building a large studio. Unpacking crates of paintings which contained works spanning the length of his career, Miró, now in his sixties, embarked upon a period of critical scrutiny, reevaluation and self-examination. Describing this undertaking as 'a shock', Miró purged and re-worked much of his art in a process which served as a catalyst for new artistic departures: 'my current work comes out of what I learned during that period' (Miró, quoted in R. Bernier, 'Joan Miró', L'Oeil, July -August 1961, reproduced in ibid., p. 257).
The new departures in Miró's work at this time largely took two forms which, although seemingly contradictory, were nonetheless united by the achievement of effects of extraordinary spontaneity and immediacy (see J. Dupin, 'Miró's Dual Approach', XX siècle, no. 16, May 1961 reproduced in G. di san Lazzaro, ed., Homage to Joan Miró: special issue of the XX siècle review, pp. 58-63). Whereas one of Miró's approaches tended towards extreme simplification with the canvas becoming a hazy, lyrical space of delicate lines, spots and splashes of soft colour, the other approach, as exemplified by Personnages et oiseaux, is characterised by the use of fluid black brushstrokes accented by swathes of glowing pigment. As Jacques Dupin articulates, 'the heavy graphism, most often traced in an unbroken flow of black paint, does not repudiate Miró's world of forms, but it simplifies it by a greater vehemence of gesture (J. Dupin, Miró, New York, 1993, p. 303).
The bold black gestural lines of the present work also illustrate, to some extent, the influence which contemporary American art exerted upon Miró at the time. In 1959, Miró had travelled to New York on the occasion of his second major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and whilst there, he was exposed to developments in the New York School of painting. Miró's art had initially functioned as a key source of inspiration for American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell - indeed in respect of this, Motherwell had published his 1959 essay entitled 'Significance of Miró' - and now it was their art which proved liberating to Miró's own. 'It showed me', Miró said of these American artist's works, 'the liberties we can take, and how far we could go, beyond the limits. In a sense, it freed me' (Miró, quoted in ibid.).
Rendered as elementary calligraphic strokes, the figures and birds in Personnages et oiseaux are emblematic of Miró's idiosyncratic language of signs which also recall, in their raw energy and simplification, the prehistoric cave-painting and primitive art which the artist found so fascinating. For Miró, it was not only the mysterious, magical and totemic qualities ascribed to primitive works of art which appealed to him, but the very anonymous nature of this art which he believed was capable of expressing a collective spirit. In its power and anonymity, prehistoric cave painting and primitive art were, for the artist, analogous to graffiti: 'we have to recover the religious and magic sense of things that belong to primitive peoples... people are always the same, in fact, and everywhere - spontaneously - they create marvelous things. This is the reason for my attraction to anonymous things, graffiti, the art of common people, the expressions and gestures that leap out at you' (Miró, quoted in G. Duthuit, 'Oú allez-vous, Miró?', Cahiers d'Art, vol. 11, 1936 reproduced in Rowell, op. cit., 1987, p. 153). Indeed, the rough gestural quality of the black brushstrokes that Miró has used in Personnages et oiseaux, along with the splashes of colour and playful articulation of form created of primal dots and lines are here somewhat reminiscent of graffiti art.
The birds and figures of the painting's title are intertwined and interconnected to create a harmonious pictorial whole of rhyming forms. The cactus-like biomorphic shape of the figure to the left and the central horned personage seem to illustrate Miró's metamorphic understanding of what he termed humankind's 'true reality': 'forms give birth to other forms, constantly changing into something else. They become each other and in this way create the reality of a universe of signs and symbols in which figures pass from one realm to another, their feet touching the roots, becoming roots themselves as they disappear into the flowing hair of the constellations' (Miró, 'Statement', in XXe Siècle, Paris, June 1957 in ibid., p. 240).
The conjunction of figures - particularly women - and birds was a recurrent motif in Miró's painting and poetry. Miró explained that his perennial attachment to the poetic subject of the bird possibly emanated from his love of space and, by implication, the ideals of freedom and liberty. A profoundly instinctual approach to painting, however, militates against unduly emphasising the anecdotal in Personnages et oiseaux: 'form takes reality for me as I work. In other words, rather than setting out to paint something, I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself under my brush. The form becomes a sign for a woman or a bird as I work' (Miró, quoted in J. Johnson Sweeney, 'Joan Miró; Comment and Interview', Partisan Review, New York, 1948 in ibid., p. 211). It was this instinctive and automatic approach to painting which enabled Miró to create uniquely poetic compositions, pulsating with energy and vibrancy.
Executed in July 1963, Personnages et oiseaux reflects the exciting developments that Joan Miró's art underwent in the early 1960s. An energetic work composed of sweeping black brushstrokes interspersed with patches of bright primary colour, in its very graphic and direct pictorial style, Personnages et oiseaux presents a clear illustration of the artist's desire to 'attain a maximum of intensity with a minimum of means' (Miró, quoted in Y. Taillandier, 'Miró: je travaille come un jardinièr', XX siècle, 15 February 1959, reproduced in M. Rowell, ed., Joan Miró - Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 251).
In 1956 Miró permanently settled in his wife - Pilar's - native Majorca where he finally realized his long-held dream of building a large studio. Unpacking crates of paintings which contained works spanning the length of his career, Miró, now in his sixties, embarked upon a period of critical scrutiny, reevaluation and self-examination. Describing this undertaking as 'a shock', Miró purged and re-worked much of his art in a process which served as a catalyst for new artistic departures: 'my current work comes out of what I learned during that period' (Miró, quoted in R. Bernier, 'Joan Miró', L'Oeil, July -August 1961, reproduced in ibid., p. 257).
The new departures in Miró's work at this time largely took two forms which, although seemingly contradictory, were nonetheless united by the achievement of effects of extraordinary spontaneity and immediacy (see J. Dupin, 'Miró's Dual Approach', XX siècle, no. 16, May 1961 reproduced in G. di san Lazzaro, ed., Homage to Joan Miró: special issue of the XX siècle review, pp. 58-63). Whereas one of Miró's approaches tended towards extreme simplification with the canvas becoming a hazy, lyrical space of delicate lines, spots and splashes of soft colour, the other approach, as exemplified by Personnages et oiseaux, is characterised by the use of fluid black brushstrokes accented by swathes of glowing pigment. As Jacques Dupin articulates, 'the heavy graphism, most often traced in an unbroken flow of black paint, does not repudiate Miró's world of forms, but it simplifies it by a greater vehemence of gesture (J. Dupin, Miró, New York, 1993, p. 303).
The bold black gestural lines of the present work also illustrate, to some extent, the influence which contemporary American art exerted upon Miró at the time. In 1959, Miró had travelled to New York on the occasion of his second major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and whilst there, he was exposed to developments in the New York School of painting. Miró's art had initially functioned as a key source of inspiration for American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell - indeed in respect of this, Motherwell had published his 1959 essay entitled 'Significance of Miró' - and now it was their art which proved liberating to Miró's own. 'It showed me', Miró said of these American artist's works, 'the liberties we can take, and how far we could go, beyond the limits. In a sense, it freed me' (Miró, quoted in ibid.).
Rendered as elementary calligraphic strokes, the figures and birds in Personnages et oiseaux are emblematic of Miró's idiosyncratic language of signs which also recall, in their raw energy and simplification, the prehistoric cave-painting and primitive art which the artist found so fascinating. For Miró, it was not only the mysterious, magical and totemic qualities ascribed to primitive works of art which appealed to him, but the very anonymous nature of this art which he believed was capable of expressing a collective spirit. In its power and anonymity, prehistoric cave painting and primitive art were, for the artist, analogous to graffiti: 'we have to recover the religious and magic sense of things that belong to primitive peoples... people are always the same, in fact, and everywhere - spontaneously - they create marvelous things. This is the reason for my attraction to anonymous things, graffiti, the art of common people, the expressions and gestures that leap out at you' (Miró, quoted in G. Duthuit, 'Oú allez-vous, Miró?', Cahiers d'Art, vol. 11, 1936 reproduced in Rowell, op. cit., 1987, p. 153). Indeed, the rough gestural quality of the black brushstrokes that Miró has used in Personnages et oiseaux, along with the splashes of colour and playful articulation of form created of primal dots and lines are here somewhat reminiscent of graffiti art.
The birds and figures of the painting's title are intertwined and interconnected to create a harmonious pictorial whole of rhyming forms. The cactus-like biomorphic shape of the figure to the left and the central horned personage seem to illustrate Miró's metamorphic understanding of what he termed humankind's 'true reality': 'forms give birth to other forms, constantly changing into something else. They become each other and in this way create the reality of a universe of signs and symbols in which figures pass from one realm to another, their feet touching the roots, becoming roots themselves as they disappear into the flowing hair of the constellations' (Miró, 'Statement', in XXe Siècle, Paris, June 1957 in ibid., p. 240).
The conjunction of figures - particularly women - and birds was a recurrent motif in Miró's painting and poetry. Miró explained that his perennial attachment to the poetic subject of the bird possibly emanated from his love of space and, by implication, the ideals of freedom and liberty. A profoundly instinctual approach to painting, however, militates against unduly emphasising the anecdotal in Personnages et oiseaux: 'form takes reality for me as I work. In other words, rather than setting out to paint something, I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself under my brush. The form becomes a sign for a woman or a bird as I work' (Miró, quoted in J. Johnson Sweeney, 'Joan Miró; Comment and Interview', Partisan Review, New York, 1948 in ibid., p. 211). It was this instinctive and automatic approach to painting which enabled Miró to create uniquely poetic compositions, pulsating with energy and vibrancy.