Artist: Joan Miró (1893 –1983)

Title: Ma De Proverbis, 1970

Medium: Lithograph, Limited Edition 59/75, Hand Signed and Numbered Lower Right

Size: 20” x 14” Unframed, 34” x 29” Framed

Miro created a series of lithographs called “The "Ma De Proverbis" Suite” (My Proverbs). In creating this symbolic series, Miró visually portrays the words of proverbs with curving lines, shapes, and colors in an obscure but deliberate manner.

Miró's use of bold colors, emboldened by black markings and symbols is instantly recognizable. This piece is hand signed by Joan Miró in pencil and numbered 59 from the edition of 75 in pencil in the lower right. The lithograph* is floated on a neutral mount in wide wood frame.

Biography

Joan Miró (1893 –1983) Spanish painter, sculptor and ceramicist in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundacio Joan Miro was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundacio Pilar Joan Miro was established in his adoptive city of Palma de Mallorca in 1981. He spent time in Paris. He was first represented in the United States by Pierre Matisse in 1934.

His first US retrospective was held in MoMa in 1941 by which time he had been living in Palma de Mallorca working on 23 gouaches, completed in Mont-roig in September 1941. In his final trip to the United States he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harvard University in 1968. A monumental sculpture was unveiled in the courtyard of Barcelona City Hall to commemorate his 90^th birthday in 1983, the same year of his death.

Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. Miro recounted, “Rather than setting out to paint something, I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself…. The first stage is free, unconscious.” But, he continued, “The second stage is carefully calculated.”