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Lot Essay
‘The literal fusion of sculpture and painting allows Miró to use the primary colors which are significant in his painting and to gain three-dimensional effects in which paint is no longer an illusory medium evoking depth on a flat surface but part of a solid object which can be touched and which can contain space as well as occupy it. The senses of sight and touch, which he has so often combined in the illusions created by his paintings and collages, here unite, and Miró exploits the possibilities offered with great skill.’ (Roland Penrose quoted in Exh. Cat., Miró, New York, 1970, p. 145).
Miró had first turned his attention to sculpture in the late 1920s, when, encouraged by his Surrealist colleagues, he executed a series of peintre-objets which utilised wood, metal and found-objects in order to challenge the conventions of sculpture, and indeed, of art as a whole. It was not until the years during and following the Second World War however, that Miró began to explore in earnest the possibilities of sculpture. Residing in Montroig, Miró once again found inspiration from the countryside that he loved so much, resulting in the formation of a new approach to sculpture that was to be rooted in the everyday world. ‘When sculpting, I start from the objects I collect, just as I make use of stains on paper and imperfections in canvases – I do this here in the country in a way that is really alive, in touch with the elements of nature’, Miró stated in a series of notes detailing how he would engage with sculpture, continuing, ‘in order to work in a more vital and direct way, work frequently out-of-doors’ (Miró, ‘Working Notes, 1941-41’ in M. Rowell (ed.), Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 175).
Experimenting first with small clay sculptures, by the late 1950s, Miró began to look seriously at the potentials of bronze, spurred on by a commission to create sculpture for the Maeght Foundation in the South of France by its founder Aimé Maeght, the first owner of the present work. By the late 1960s, sculpture had come to dominate Miró’s artistic production: Miró often conceived of the idea for a sculpture and envisaged the composition and structure of these works many years before their actual creation and subsequent casting in bronze. Femme, like the majority of the other works of the series of painted sculptures of this period, take women as their subject, conveying femininity with a playful, humorous and poetic approach.
Miró had first turned his attention to sculpture in the late 1920s, when, encouraged by his Surrealist colleagues, he executed a series of peintre-objets which utilised wood, metal and found-objects in order to challenge the conventions of sculpture, and indeed, of art as a whole. It was not until the years during and following the Second World War however, that Miró began to explore in earnest the possibilities of sculpture. Residing in Montroig, Miró once again found inspiration from the countryside that he loved so much, resulting in the formation of a new approach to sculpture that was to be rooted in the everyday world. ‘When sculpting, I start from the objects I collect, just as I make use of stains on paper and imperfections in canvases – I do this here in the country in a way that is really alive, in touch with the elements of nature’, Miró stated in a series of notes detailing how he would engage with sculpture, continuing, ‘in order to work in a more vital and direct way, work frequently out-of-doors’ (Miró, ‘Working Notes, 1941-41’ in M. Rowell (ed.), Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, p. 175).
Experimenting first with small clay sculptures, by the late 1950s, Miró began to look seriously at the potentials of bronze, spurred on by a commission to create sculpture for the Maeght Foundation in the South of France by its founder Aimé Maeght, the first owner of the present work. By the late 1960s, sculpture had come to dominate Miró’s artistic production: Miró often conceived of the idea for a sculpture and envisaged the composition and structure of these works many years before their actual creation and subsequent casting in bronze. Femme, like the majority of the other works of the series of painted sculptures of this period, take women as their subject, conveying femininity with a playful, humorous and poetic approach.