Joan Miró combined abstraction with surrealist fantasy. Evident in his work “Femmes Encerclées par le Vol d’un Oiseau” (“Women Encircled by the Flight of a Bird”) created in 1941, the artist makes use of the tension between poetic impulse and the unpleasant realities of modern life. Miró sought to portray nature as it would be depicted by a child, using simplifications, however with the knowledge, irony, and rational abilities of an adult. The poetic nature of Miró’s artworks fit well within the dream-like automatism of the surrealist art group. Although he is widely considered a leading artist of SurrealismSurrealism was a 20th-century philosophical, literary, and artistic movement seeking to channel the unconscious to access the imaginary. Proponents of Surrealism rejected the notion of understanding life in rational and conventional terms in favour of asserting the value of the unconscious mind, dreams, the strangely beautiful, and the uncanny. André Breton, the leader of a group of poets and artists More, he refused to be officially part of the group to be able to explore other styles more freely. Even though his work is loved for its joyful celebration of colour, it also contains messages about emotional agony and despair about war and destruction, as well as ideas about peace and freedom.
Where is the picture “Women Encircled by the Flight of a Bird” today?
The Joan MiróSpanish Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) is famous for his works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. His work is strongly influenced by his hometown Barcelona, the scenic seaside, and the distinct style of that area. From early on, he was exposed to the arts through his parents’ professions: His mother was a goldsmith, father worked as a watchmaker. More original of “Women Encircled by the Flight of a Bird” (1941) is currently part of a private collection.
What’s in it?
Joan MiróSpanish Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) is famous for his works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. His work is strongly influenced by his hometown Barcelona, the scenic seaside, and the distinct style of that area. From early on, he was exposed to the arts through his parents’ professions: His mother was a goldsmith, father worked as a watchmaker. More used an intense palette of colours on an opalescent, tawny background, applying gouache and watercolour in combination with pencil and charcoal drawing. A range of small black forms interspersed with clearly outlined green, blue, yellow, and red colour fields rhythmically populate the composition, describing the scene of a bird in the sky flying around a group of women.
Miró applied a set of pictorial vocabulary developed in the first years of the Second World War, adding up to his unique visual language across multiple artworks. He developed symbols for stars and planets, at places represented through intersecting lines and triangles; birds, mainly shown through the mere trajectory of their flight, rather than the animal itself; and women, most clearly to identify through their open sexes presented as a divided tear shape or ovoid, both halves in different colours. However, despite their shape and detail, Miro’s vaginas lack the sexual pulse as known from artists like Egon SchieleAustrian painter Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918) was one of the leading figures of Austrian Expressionism. He is famous for his fluid drawing style depicting twisted and distorted bodies and raw sexuality. As early as in his teenage years, his formidable talents fully matured as a protégé of Gustav Klimt. In 1907, Klimt had become Egon’s mentor and they developed More, Wassily KandinskyWassily (Vasily) Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) is known as one of the pioneers of abstract modern art. He was born in in Moscow to upper-class parents of mixed ethnic origins. At an early age, Kandinsky showed a rare sensitivity towards music and the arts, which his father strongly supported. Kandinsky decided to study law, ethnography, and economics, and started successfully More, or Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso (1881–1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and resident in France from 1904. He was a dominant figure in avant-garde movements in the first half of the 20th century due to his technical versatility and prolific inventiveness. picasso-self-portrait Picasso’s progression in his early work is largely categorized by predominant colour schemes: His Blue Period (1901-1904) features motifs More.
Miró once stated: “My figures underwent the same simplification as my colours. Simplified as they are, they are more human and more alive than they would be if represented in all their detail. Represented in detail, they would lose their imaginary quality, which enhances everything.”
What’s the context?
Joan MiróSpanish Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) is famous for his works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. His work is strongly influenced by his hometown Barcelona, the scenic seaside, and the distinct style of that area. From early on, he was exposed to the arts through his parents’ professions: His mother was a goldsmith, father worked as a watchmaker. More created his “Constellations” paintings between 1940 and 1941 while he was in a village near the coast called Varengeville-sur-Mer Normandy, among them “Women Encircled by the Flight of a Bird”. The sky, stars, and tale-like sceneries are the leitmotifs of these pictures. The artist stated: “At Varengeville-sur-Mer, in 1939, began a new stage in my work which had its sources in music and nature. It was about the time that the war broke out. I felt a deep desire to escape. I closed myself within myself purposely.”
Focusing on the sky and dreamlike landscapes helped him to distance himself from the horrors of humanity. Miró believed that in “a painting, you should be able to discover new things each time you look at it. For me, a painting must give off sparks. It must dazzle like the beauty of a woman or a poem”.
Chatter and Prattle
Joan MiróSpanish Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) is famous for his works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. His work is strongly influenced by his hometown Barcelona, the scenic seaside, and the distinct style of that area. From early on, he was exposed to the arts through his parents’ professions: His mother was a goldsmith, father worked as a watchmaker. More – Facts:
- Miró’s instinct for political engagement was heartfelt, full of fear of risk and danger. He would often react through gestures of withdrawal and self-defence. André BretonAndré Breton (1896 – 1966) was a French writer and poet, best known as an original member of the Dada group and one of the founders of the Surrealism movement. His seminal writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme), published 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism", encouraging chance and spontaneity in artistic practices. Breton More, the founder of the surrealist movement, once referred to Miró, as a case of “arrested development” and as a childlike artist – a label, that would stick with Miró for a long time. Miró said himself: “When I was painting the Constellations, I had the genuine feeling that I was working in secret, but it was a liberation for me in that I ceased thinking about the tragedy all around me.”
- Miró considered the “Constellation” series among his most significant works. The pictures also inspired André BretonAndré Breton (1896 – 1966) was a French writer and poet, best known as an original member of the Dada group and one of the founders of the Surrealism movement. His seminal writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme), published 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism", encouraging chance and spontaneity in artistic practices. Breton More to write a series of prose poems likewise called “Constellations” in 1958.
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Joan Miro et al. (2017): Joan Miro: I Work Like a Gardener (Interview with Joan Miro on his creative process)
Carolyn Lanchner (1993): Joan Miro (A Museum of Modern Art Book)
Agnes De La Beaumelle (2020): Joan Miró 1917–1934: I’m Going to Smash their Guitar
Margit Rowell et al. (2017): Miro and Calder’s Constellations
Marko Daniel et al. (2012): Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape
