Joan Miro Exhibition

We didn't plan our time very well when we went to MOMA.  Okay, that's not fair.  I didn't plan our time very well when we went to MOMA.  Paul was just letting me go wherever I wanted.

At any rate, we had started to leave when we heard the announcement that the museum was closing soon.  Luckily I saw a sign for the exhibition, Joan Miro*: The Birth of the World. We quickly sidestepped the growing escalator queue and got in 15 minutes the exhibition.  LUCKY!



Here's a view of Barcelona (October 18, 1950 - January 26, 1951), a mural commissioned at the suggestion of Walter Gropius to hang in Harvard's graduate cafeteria.  Ten years after its installation, the canvas was replaced by a ceramic tile version of the mural and the original canvas was acquired by MOMA.

I had to stand all the way on the other side of the room to get the entire canvas in the frame.



Here's a piece you've likely never seen before because it's held in a private collection in Palm Beach, Florida.  It's called Personages, Mountains, Sky, Star and Bird (1936).  The chat label said that Miro wrote his dealer, Pierre Matisse, two months prior to completing the painting, stating, "The work continues.  In the end, I believe it will transport you into a world of real unreality."



I don't recall ever seeing The Birth of the World before.  I was a bit taken aback by the scale (8'3" x 6'7").   One of the unique things about this painting is the background; something like that had never been done before.  In an interview, Joan Miro's grandson explained that his grandfather tried to catch the moment before you fall asleep, when ideas are flying about.  These were the images that his grandfather was trying to capture as he created this new type of backdrop for his canvas.




I can't say that I love every one of Miro's works, but this is one of my favorites: The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers (1941).  I can't help but smile hearing the title, though I'm not sure I'd believe everything a cat told me.  They seem to have their own agendas.


I'm now off to do some research reading.  Curling up to read under the umbrella (or on the couch when it's really humid) is such a treat.  How are you treating yourself today?

Footnote:
* I know there's an accent mark over the "o" of Miro's name, but my computer fails me.  Sorry.


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