The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Figure (verso)

1940

Joan Miró

(Spanish, 1893–1983)

Spain, 20th century

pen and brown ink

Sheet: 45.8 x 37.9 cm (18 1/16 x 14 15/16 in.)

Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1965.2.b

Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing was published in book alongside the other works from Joan Miro's "Constellations" series, accompanied by poems written by André Breton.

Description

This drawing belongs to a group of 23 works made by Joan Miro between January 1940 and September 1941, which he called "Constellations." All were made in Normandy, where the artist had retreated from the Spanish civil war. Miro juxtaposed blurry layers of watercolor in earthy tones with neatly linear lines in black ink and shapes in white gouache to develop his own language of symbols that suggested, in his words, "the night, music, and the stars." The fifth in the series, this drawing is dominated by a vague figural form at center, who draws a comb through her hair while holding a mirror through which shines the moon and a star. The allover abstract composition was a major influence on later artists, following a 1945 exhibition in New York.

[E. V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York].
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: P. 264-265, 298; Reproduced: P. 264, cat. no. 112
Exposition Miro. Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France (organizer) (July 23-September 30, 1968).
Possibly New York 1945, no. 5 (all the "Constellation" series drawings, except Nocturne, the one Miró gave to his wife, are listed in the brochure printed for the 1945 exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery; according to Lilian Tone, however, who compiled exhibition histories for the 1993 Miró retrospective [New York 1993-94], not all the "Constellation" drawings were shown there; she listed only the few mentioned in contemporary reviews of the show as ones we know for certain were in the exhibition); possibly New York 1959b (according to New York 1993-94, 417, under no. 160); Paris 1959b (according to New York 1993-94, 417, under no. 160); cma 1965f; Cleveland 1966, 204, no. 77 (repr.); Saint-Paul-de-Vence 1968, no. 38; Barcelona 1968-69, 61, no. 42; Cleveland 1979b, 80-81, no. 34, 175, color pl. xxi; Houston 1982, 4; Cleveland 1987, 79-82, no. 38, color pl. vii; Madrid 1993, 153, no. 65 (repr.) 114; New York 1993-94, 417, no. 160, 242 (color repr.).
{{cite web|title=Figure (verso)|url=false|author=Joan Miró|year=1940|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.2.b