The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider

The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider was completed by Joan Miro in 1948 and it features the signature style for which he is famous today. Abstract shapes in limited palettes helped the Catalan to influence the direction of European art during the 20th century.

There appears to be a heavy use of calligraphy within this painting, as well as some menacing-looking eyes. There are elements which remind us of the human body, but also other parts that look more like the world of cosmology. Miro places a strong green background right across the work which varies slightly in tone, just enough to make it look natural and unplanned. The shapes over the top are then a mixture of strong bold tones, and then others which are constructed via slim lines of pen. The stars for example are abstract and simple, cartoon-like in their construction. It is somewhat difficult to actually explain with confidence as to just what we are looking at here, and so experts would likely compare The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider with other items of that period to perhaps find some links and make conclusions directly from that.

The artist continued to work in this manner for many years, making paintings such as this instantly recognisable as those of Miro. Eyes feature commonly within his work and it was easy to work within an abstract approach yet still have them identifiable, where as other parts of the body were not so easy. Miro wanted to reduce his work down to the smallest amounts of parts possible, deliberately acting against what had gone before in the artistic styles found in previous centuries. He would ultimately achieve true abstraction, and remains highly regarded for what he achieved, as modern art came to the fore for the first time.

The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider currently resides within a private collection, as is the case for many artworks from his career. Miro was a highly productive artist who left behind many hundreds of artworks from a long and distinguished career. This allows many to also be found within public collections, with most of those within the US and Europe. Most are now fairly settled, with owners prefering to keep their artworks and not auction them off for sale, even though they would be worth huge amounts today. Those within public institutions will also be prized assets and a major part of the gallery or museum's display, and so sales would only be considered in extreme circumstances. Several galleries have actually managed to put together large groups of work from Miro's career, allowing them to organise exhibitions on his career from time to time.