Joan Mir, Agora I, Color Lithograph, 1971, Framed for sale at Pamono

Description

Joan Mir, Agora I, 1971
Color lithography
Work signed by the artist
Working dimensions 71/51
Framed work

Lithographic poster for an exhibition of artists represented by Galeria Maeght at the Muse d’Art Moderne Strasbourg in 1971. Poster by Joan Mir, a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist. The surrealist master is one of the most important Spanish artists of the 20th century and one of the greatest artists of contemporary art.

A picture is made of brushstrokes, just as a poem is made of words. – Joan Miro

Mir’s works are interpreted as belonging to surrealism, as an expression of a return to childhood and as sandboxes for the subconscious. The Mir style consists of vivid colors combined with simplified forms, reminiscent of drawings of a small child. Initially, Mir created in various fashionable styles, for example, Fauvist and Cubist. In 1920 he traveled to Paris several times, and a year later he settled there permanently. He met Pablo Picasso, Vasily Kandinsky and many other outstanding artists. In 1924 he joined the surrealists of Andr Breton’s circle, but – despite the fact that he worked under their influence – he remained on the outskirts of this trend, maintaining the position of an outsider.

Influenced by Surrealist poets and writers, he began to develop his own style: a map of weightless colored signs and poetic forms that evoke both the seemingly naive freshness of invention and the exuberant and baroque Catalan spirit. The elements of the style adopted by him were organic forms and a flattened drawing with sharp lines. with the help of a symbol, a trace of a finger, a hand, water on paper, a seemingly delicate line on fabric – the master transformed the world around him with clear simplicity. He created a reality full of poetic and dreamlike transformations.

His lifestyle had a great need for cleanliness, order and education. The studio was tidy, and the works were arranged according to a system known only to the artist. He grew up in Barcelona, spent part of his life in Paris, and although in 1956 the artist decided to move to Palma de Mallorca and Villa Son Abrines, his life continued to follow the Barcelona-Parisian rhythm. The choice of Palma de Mallorca was also not accidental, because his wife – Pilar Juncosa – was born on this Mediterranean island.

Often the starting point of Mir’s paintings is the main color spot from which the world emerges with the strict organization of its irrational form. However spontaneous this creation may seem, only the first moment was created freely, the rest is meticulously controlled according to Mir’s requirements for balance in the composition. Freeing his paintings from illusions and anecdotes, Mir has reached the limit of simplification. He is the author of the grattage painting technique, which consists in scraping the paint off the canvas.

Work in original vintage condition.