This exhibit poster on the theme of dawn, Ocell de l'Albada (Bird of Dawn) (CR 625), is quite remarkable. A color lithograph, it was produced for the presentation of a book edition, 'Les essències de la terra' (The Essences of the Earth, 1969). It is the call of the bird at dawn. It calls and wipes out the night. Miró's characteristic stroke is an intrinsic part of this poster (CR 625), one of the earliest prints in this selection on offer from Grafos Verlag.

'Barcelona III' (CR 995, 1975) is an extremely fresh print from the Barcelona Series I-III, to the texts of Pere Gimferrer, with the title, 'Un camí compartit' (A Shared Path). Here the arts of painting and drawing, and their free application, come to the fore. This is a fresh print in lengthwise format, filled to the edges and of great suggestive power.

Interesting, perhaps, the fact that the bull, pride of the Spaniards, makes no appearance in Miró's work. This national emblem contradicted most deeply Miró's vision of non-violence. In its place, another national phenomenon appeared, football. Here, local patriotism comes into play. 'El Barça' (1974, CR 931) is not a ship, as one might hazard, but rather a football team and club, the famous Fútbol Club Barcelona. On its 75th anniversary (1899-1974), Miró created a lithograph for a poster, in fact, an extraordinary print, that would make every fan rejoice.

A wonderful individual lithograph, this print is entitled 'Colorful Cavalcade'. Here we can begin the expedition through Miró's world. In Leiris' words: 'Miró's painting is at once fine and elementary. Everything rests on the quality of the stroke, the trace, the magic of the colors. There is nothing to explain about this painting, except that is not intended to explain anything'.

Several prints that were done for the 1979 exhibit 'Homenatge a Gaudí' at the Galeria Maeght in Barcelona are available here. 'Homenatge a Gaudí' (CR 1188) became the motif for a poster in 1979. A further print served as the invitation and was published as a lithograph before the words were added (CR. 1189). Both of the typical prints, 'Gos i ocell' (Dog and Bird, out of print) and 'Vol espacial l' (Space Flight, CR 1186-1187) were published on the same occasion by Galeria Maeght, printed by Damià Caus in Barcelona. The prints in homage to Gaudí No. VI and Gaudí No. XIV also belong in this circle. They display a very finely printed structure in their background composition with regards to the paper. The eccentric, avant-garde architect Antoni Gaudí (Tarragona, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926) was of huge significance to Modernism at the turn of the century. None of the budding artists of the time passed his liberated world of forms, his houses, churches, parks and sculptures without astonishment. Gaudí's body of works gave inspiration and playful support to an entire generation. It was as if he had sought to create the impossible, the utopian. His architecture can be categorized as Spanish Art Nouveau. It was born of the Catalan Gothic and the Churriguera Style, and grew to a nearly hallucinatory freedom of form, which established itself as the new Catalan style of architecture. Miró's form and color structure could very well have sprung from the constructed organic nature of Gaudí's work. In any case, these prints call forth the spirits of Gaudí's Parc Güell. At the same time, they are an homage to Barcelona's very soul and culture, in which Miró's art, like the pulse of the Sardana dance, flows into a single heartbeat.

Gaudí Nr. VI

Gaudí Nr. XIV

El Dançaire (The Dancer, CR 1183, in vertical format) is an example of Miró's lively, bright and dynamic prints which carries all the attributes of his artwork: fields of pure color, dark lines drawn with a brush, the tangle of strokes and scrawling lines, automatism, stars and associations. A generous, strong work of art can be observed in this late lithograph from 1978-79. The quintessence of the artist's cosmos is gathered in these prints. 'El Dançaire', 'L'abella somniadora' (Dreaming Bee, CR 1179), Personatge i Estel VI und Personatge i Estel I (Figure and Stars), the figure under the stars from 1978-79, as well as the touching print in which a large eye observes a small one before a lively background, 'Pare i Fill' (Father and Son, CR 1189), published by the Galeria Maeght. This gallery succeeded in collaborating with the artist constantly during his last fourteen years of artistic activity and is a guarantee for the quality of the prints available from Grafos Verlag in Vaduz.

Personatge i EstelV I

Personatge i Estel I

Pare i Fill

'Melodie Acide' (Acid Melody, 1980) is reproduced in the catalogue raisonné as a series of 14 Lithographs (CR 1212-1225). A motif which varies within a theme. If you look closely, you will see the figures dancing, hear singing, music, and all etched into stone. We know that Miró was very fond of the musical instruments of the Balearic Islands, small ceramic whistles in the form of figurines. One could almost believe something of them was cast into 'Melodie Acide' through a spell. It chimes and sings and dances.

Typically, a single form provides the leading tone throughout the series, transforming itself in each print. A loosening of stricter structures is carried out through swabs and scribbling, curlicue lines. The print technique appears so original in its fine material qualities that its as if the artist had gone over the print once again, after printing, with a pencil. A rather small format with a great deal of charm. 'Acide' refers to the applied technique of lithography, since it is the acid sinking into the plate which gives the colors form and makes them harmonize. And that is the melody. Printed by La Polígrafa, Barcelona, 1980.
Nr. 1, Nr. 2, Nr. 8, Nr. 12, Nr. 13 are still available in signed form.

Melodie Acide Nr. 8

Melodie Acide Nr. 12

Melodie Acide Nr. 13

From the series 'Tapís de Tarragona' (Tapestry of Tarragona)

For a long time, Miró's studio was in Montroig, in the province of Tarragona. There, Miró wove, in a figurative sense, his lifetime tapestry, his pictorial cosmos. In the individual lithographs from the series 'Tapís de Tarragona' (CR Cramer No. 872-881), originally to text by Rafael Orozco, Maria Lluïsa Borràs and Josep Royo (1972), displays above all a wide line structure in warm black which crosses over free color forms. That is the tapestry of Tarragona. These lithographs are like tempera paintings in their composition. They have the same fresh quality. The graphics, published by the famous Sala Gaspar in Barcelona, are mostly presented in a medium-small horizontal format. The following prints are still available through Grafos Verlag: No. 1 'High Song of Joy' (CR Cramer 874); No. 2 (CR Cramer 875); No. 3 'Cosmic Embrace' (CR Cramer. 876); No. 4 'Diagnosis'; No. 5 'Arpegi vital' (Healing Currents of Energy' or Vital Arpeggio, CR Cramer 878); No. 6 'Comunicació' (Communication, CR Cramer 879); No. 7 'Els Àngels' (The Angels, CR Cramer 880); No. 8 (Cramer CR 881); No. 10 'Els Cinc Elements' (The Five Elements, CR Cramer 873). 'Song of the Cicada' (CR Cramer 685), a print with a great aura, also belongs here as a special print. The prints are numbered and stamped with MIRÓ's studio relief stamp. They were published in 1972.

Tapís de Tarragona Nr. 5

Tapís de Tarragona Nr. 6

Tapís de Tarragona Nr. 7

Tapís de Tarragona Nr. 8

Tapís de Tarragona Nr. 10

Zikadengesang

Maravillas en el jardin de Miró

The large color lithograph series continue with 'Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró' (Wonders with Acrostic Variations in Miró's Garden, CR Cramer 1051-1072), lithographs to a text by Rafael Alberti in 1975. Grafos Verlag, Vaduz, still has the following prints available: ' Morning Melody' (CR Cramer 1069); 14 'La Siesta de Venus' (Venus' Siesta, CR Cramer, 1069); 15 'Madcap', a print to a suit of poems by Alberti (CR Cramer 1063); 16 'Magic Flute' (D.A., CR Cramer No. 1065); 17 'Sardana Dance' (under the Moon) (CR Cramer 1067); 19 'LLos Vientos Cantados' (Singing the Winds, Merry Flight, CR Cramer 1057); and 20 'Spring Magic'. Although Miró always worked in his studio, his impressions came from outside. We know how meaningful even the smallest living creature in meadow or garden was to him. The 'Wonders in the Garden' as a series is greatly transparent and limpid: the flow of the ink, the trace of the brush or the pencil. And always in his awareness of planetary existence, the horizon ends only at the sun, moon and stars, in the delicate balance of the cyclical. These works were printed in 1975 by La Polígrafa in Barcelona, and published by Sala Gaspar. Available today from Grafos Verlag, Vaduz.

Magic Flute

Sardana Dance

Los vientos cantados

Rupestres Nos. I - XVII

With 'Rupestres', Nos. 3 - 17 (1978-79), we reach a high point of Miró's etching. The collaboration with Taller Barbarà in Barcelona (published by Maeght) can also be considered a stroke of luck. The printing is of great technical perfection. In these prints, Miró arrives at a solution which allows the image and the wall, painting and drawing to become one, and which evoke Megalithic cave paintings (Rupestres) and the expressive force of graffiti. These are large-format prints (76 x 56 cm.). The free gestural style cultivated throughout his life comes to the fore most convincingly. But the unpredictable as well as the demonic are also evoked. Color is used sparingly and is contained within a rectangle. 'Rupestres', cave paintings of our artistic century, and testimonies to the unbroken creative force of a genius over eighty.

Commedia d´arte Nr. I


Commedia d´arte Nr. III


Commedia d´arte Nr. IV

La Commedia d'arte.

These prints available from Grafos Verlag, 'La Commedia d'arte' (1978-79) are related to 'Rupestres', yet quite different. Likewise published by Maeght Gallery in Barcelona and printed by Taller Barbarà 46, almost every print displays a distinct color together with the expressively dark forms - green, blue, yellow or gray. Circus, ballerinas and stage sets for Expressionist theater had already concerned Joan Miró from the beginning of his artistic trajectory. Many drawings and paintings prove this. Basing himself on previous drawings, the over eighty-year-old artist had created the stage set to the play 'Ubú Rey'. Like that play, the 'Commedia d'arte' attempts to show the strengths and weaknesses of the human. The king's jester, who follows his inner instinct, is wise, just as the clown carries a sense of tragedy. Six stupendous individual prints, color etchings that could enhance a public just as well as a private collection.

Commedia d´arte Nr. V

Commedia d´arte Nr. VI

Commedia d´arte Nr. VIII

Lapidari

And finally, the 'Lapidari' series, Nos. 28 - 38. These too represent a high point. Here Miró once again displays his limpid relation to the expressiveness of line. In earlier prints, there are astonishing examples, in which a line embodies a sleeping bird, another - prisoners condemned to death. The language of the line is universal, and Miró revealed like few other artists, the secret of art in these later graphics: The line as the elementary feature of the drawing, and the spot of color as the core of all painting. The excellent printing results achieved by the Barbarà workshops in Barcelona (published by Maeght) make these prints some of the most valuable treasures in the recent history of art. In these late graphics, Miró synthesized in his own way his preoccupation with Informal art. The etchings were given names that did not expose their secret: Coral, Safir, Balays, Marquesita, Ceranius, Aquilius, Estopaçi, Berill, Magnete, Calcedonia, Girgonça. What one encounters here is a freed space, and at the same time, the fruit of a long life. ek