229 - JOAN MIRÓ (Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983).

JOAN MIRÓ (Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983). "L'Écumante." "People of the Sea" series. 1981. Aquatint and carborundum print on Rivas paper. Edition 21/60. With certificate of authenticity on the back. Signed with a seal and numbered in pencil. Stamped by the Miró Estate and signed by Emilio Fernández Miró, the artist’s grandson. Bibliography: Miró Graveur, vol. IV, no. 1284, p. 209, with illustration. Measurements: 69 × 43.5 cm (print); 104.5 × 78.5 × 4 cm (frame). In this print, Joan Miró displays a fully recognizable language, based on the balance between sign, mark, and color. The central figure, “the bubbling one,” expands like a biomorphic organism, while the small suspended signs and dots introduce a playful and cosmic rhythm, characteristic of the Miró universe. The combination of aquatint and carborundum allows the artist to work with material densities, transparencies, and textures of great richness. The planes of color act as visual impulses within an open, playful, and cosmic composition, fully representative of Miró’s mature universe. Joan Miró trained in Barcelona, where he held his first solo exhibition in 1918 at the Dalmau Galleries. In 1920 he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with the Surrealist circle and developed his own artistic language based on free association, memory, and the irrational. International recognition came quickly: in 1928, the MoMA in New York acquired works by him, and in 1941 it dedicated a major retrospective to him. Throughout his career, he received major honors, including awards at the Venice Biennale and from the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as the Gold Medals for Fine Arts and from the Government of Catalonia. His work is now held in leading institutions such as the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona), MoMA (New York), the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid), the National Gallery of Art (Washington), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).