Original Lithography IV

Lithograph in colors from Litografo (Volume I) Spanish edition from 1972, Joan Miró.

Catalogue of works:  Mourlot 860.

Miró's development of a new pictorial language led to a consistent restriction to the primary colours black, green, yellow, blue and red, which he implemented in the series of paintings "Constellations" (1940/41) with lines, spots and areas of colour.

Like Pablo Picasso and Franz Marc, Miró also worked with graphics and primarily produced etchings and lithographs. Produced in large editions, the artist believed that everyone should be able to afford a print by Miró.

Joan Miró (born 1893 in Barcelona, died 1983 in Palma de Mallorca) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist and is considered one of the most important representatives of Surrealism.

In 1907 he studied at the commercial school and the art academy of Barcelona, which had already been attended by Picasso.

In his early creative phase Miró worked in the rectilinear style of Fauvism and Cubism. When he joined the Surrealist group around Breton in 1924, his painting style was influenced by this, although he still acted as an outsider to this style.

Miró developed a characteristic pictorial language characterised by strong colours and simplified forms. This individual style of painting emerged from 1930 onwards and brought Miró international fame.

In 1971, a museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona and is considered the most important Miró museum.

In 1979, Miró designed a church window and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Barcelona.

Miró's works are characterised by enigmatic and sometimes ironic elements. Animal figures (e.g. birdman) and twisted, organic and geometric forms appear. His paintings are also associated with a so-called cheerful naivety. The artist himself described his paintings as poetic, which were created in this sense through meticulous design with numerous preliminary studies.