Painting (1933)

This 1933 artwork was left untitled by the artist, as were a number of other pieces from around this time. Each are referred to by the year of their release in order to identify each one.

Here we find the abstract world of Joan Miro alive and well. The canvas is primed in blue, though there are variations of its tone across the background. The artist then inserts a whole plethora of shapes across every corner, as well as a number of black lines, with these together creating an abstract scene that we must now try to decipher. Without the title, we are going to find this a little more tricky than with other paintings from this artist. One advantage that we do have is that Miro had a common language which he used repeatedly and so there is always a possibility that knowledge of some of his other paintings can help us here. The period in which this painting arrived was loosely grouped in the years of 1929-1938 and so within that you will find a number of similar artworks from this artist.

We believe that in preparing for several artworks, such as the one found here, that Miro himself would put together a number of collages within his studio in order to plan the shapes and final look. He had a tendancy to include human figures, animals and also themes of cosmology within his work and so we can immediately try to spot these within this piece. We find a number of small figures at the top, where a face is joined by a single curve in black or red which denotes the torso. We then find all manner of shapes elsewhere, with perhaps a landscape added to the right hand side via a few simple lines. A further examination reveals more faces, such as a head in green, with hair.