Self Portrait II

This bright and memorable artwork from Miro combines bright shapes and delicate touches of the brush which leave behind form through dotted lines. Flamed suns dominate the eye initially.

It is only when we consider this as a self portrait that one starts to be confused as to the identity of each element of this abstract work. There is a clear abstract form of him here, and the re-arrangement could also be said to be surrealist, where there is very little connection to reality. Sometimes it is necessary to refer to other artworks from the same period in order to try to understand his visual language and perhaps make connections between similar objects repeated several times. His bright circles can often resemble the sun, but two of them with flames coming from each - could those be his eyes? That would make sense, and allow us to then guess at some of the other items. Normally, Miro would connect hands, heads and feet together with narrow lines but in this case he used a very dark background that would mean these lines would not stand out as much. Perhaps this is why he goes with white dots, which are clearer but not as bold as strong solid white lines would have been.

This bright piece from 1938 can be found in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts and is an exciting highlight within a huge collection. Some of the biggest names to be found here, alongside Miro himself, would have to be Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, which helps to reflect some of the diversity found within this wonderful and historic city. Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States is a powerful and entirely relevant artwork from 1932 that can be found here and marks a rare political piece from Frida Kahlo.

Location-wise, Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry is also a particularly suitable artwork to be found here, and is also amongst his most stunning piece. They actually cover a much wider period than just the 20th century and have clearly attempted to offer as wide and comprehensive a display of art as possible in order to cover a wide audience and also help to educate their visitors about the full array of styles that have come about in past centuries.