Lot 230 D

The work offered for sale is a trial sheet with deep impression formerly intended for a printed work; Miró worked on both sides of it in 1962 and completed it in 1967. The artist has loosely grouped typical elements from his cosmos of symbols - such as the sun, moon and stars - on the sheet. These forms are set off against luminous circular forms in pastel tones and related to one another through a reductive system of lines. This results in an elated composition full of lightness. Regarding Miró's graphic oeuvre of the 1960s and 1970s, Margit Rowell writes: “The extremely subdued motifs of these paintings - a broadly set brushstroke, a delicate meandering line or a series of spots - are the culmination of all his previous oeuvre. Here we find the quintessence of an artist's life. Even if it is tempting to take up the concept of abstraction once more, it would nonetheless be more correct to describe these paintings as geo- and metaphysical landscapes. In his old age, Miró more and more concentrated all the strength of his mind and body on a minimalism within which a universe can be discovered.” (Margit Rowell, Die Einkreisung der Phantasie, in: Joan Miró: Arbeiten auf Papier 1901 - 1977, Kestner-Gesellschaft Hanover 1989, p. 25).