Head of a Catalan Peasant is an emblematic sequence of oil paintings and pencil made by Joan Miró between 1924 and 1925. Miró began this series the same year that André Breton published his Manifesto of Surrealism. The series was made partly in Paris. For Joan Miró "a peasant" symbolized rural knowledge, and also reflected his Catalan identity.
| Head of a Catalan Peasant | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Joan Miró  |
| Year | 1924-1925 |
| Collection | National Gallery of Art |
The Fundació Joan Miró of Barcelona keeps several preparatory drawings for this series.[1][2][3]
The work demonstrates that Miró had ties with his homeland throughout his career.[4] Joan Miró created this series in response to the prohibition of the Catalan language by Miguel Primo de Rivera. He was also influenced by the rural environment of Baix Camp. In this series he further develops the language started in works such as Catalan Landscape (The Hunter). The sequence followed by Miró has been interpreted several times as a progressive simplification of the same scene.[5] Christopher Green, in turn, says that this is not exactly a linear trend toward simplification, but rather a dilemma, an internal discussion between the artist which creates the filled pictorial space.[citation needed]
Description
editThe series shares the synthetic representation of the figure of a Catalan peasant, by a repetition of symbols such as the triangular head, the beard and red hat (called Barretina), all combined in one pole figure. In this group of oil paintings, Miró outlines the figure of a farmer several times, working with neutral background blue or yellow. As said Margit Rowell, Joan Miró explained his intentions with this work:
I escaped into the absolute. I wanted my spots to seem open to the magnetic appeal of the void. I was very interested in the void, in perfect emptiness. I put it into my pale and scumbled grounds, and my linear gestures on top were the signs of my dream progression.
— Joan Miró[5]
Series
editHead of a Catalan Peasant (1924)
edit| Head of a Catalan Peasant[6] | |
|---|---|
| Catalan: Cap de pagès Català | |
| Artist | Joan Miró |
| Year | 1924 |
| Type | Oil painting technique and color pencils |
| Dimensions | 146 cm × 114.2 cm (57 in × 45.0 in) |
| Location | National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
This first version of the Catalan Peasant was painted in 1924 and is now part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[6] It became part of the collection as a gift of the Collectors Committee of the institution. The work is signed at lower right: Miró / 1924. The back of the work is signed Joan Miró, Tête de Paysan Catalan, 1924.
Exhibitions
edit| Year | Exhibition | Place | City | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Ausstellung | Kunsthaus Zürich | Zurich | [7] |
| 1936 | International Surrealist Exhibition | New Burlington Galleries | London | [8] |
| 1980 | XIX & XX Century Master Paintings | Acquavella Galleries, Inc. | New-York | [9] |
| 1982 | Miró in America | Museum of Fine Arts | Houston | [10] |
| 1993 | Joan Miró: 1893-1993 | Fundació Joan Miró | Barcelona | [11] |
| 1993 | Joan Miró: Campo de Estrellas | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía | Madrid | [12] |
| 1993 | Joan Miró | Museum of Modern Art | New York | [13] |
| 1997 | Joan Miró: Campesino catalán con guitarra | Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza | Madrid | [14] |
| 1998–1999 | Joan Miró | Moderna Museet & Louisiana Museum of Modern Art |
Stockholm & Humlebaek |
[15] |
| 2004 | Joan Miró 1917-1934: La Naissance du Monde | Centre Georges Pompidou | Paris | [16] |
| 2008 | La invención del siglo XX. Carl Einstein y las vanguardias | Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía | Madrid | [17] |
| 2008 | Miró: la tierra | Palazzo dei Diamanti i Museu Thyssen-Bornemisza |
Ferrara i Madrid |
[17] |
| 2011 | Miró: The ladder of escape | Tate Modern | London | [18][19] |
| 2011 | Miró: L'escala de l'evasió | Fundació Joan Miró | Barcelona | [20] |
Head of a Catalan Peasant
edit| Head of a Catalan Peasant | |
|---|---|
| Catalan: Cap de pagès Català | |
| Artist | Joan Miró |
| Year | 1924-1925 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 47 cm × 45 cm (19 in × 18 in) |
| Location | private collection, N.D. |
Is the most unknown of the series, which belongs to a private collector, but has been seen in several exhibitions:
Exhibitions
edit| Year | Exhibition | Place | City | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | MoMA and Los Angeles County Museum | New York and Los Angeles | [21] | |
| 1964 | Tate and Kunsthaus Zürich | London and Zurich | [22] | |
| 1968 | Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu | Barcelona | [23] |
Catalan peasant with guitar
edit| Catalan peasant with guitar[5] | |
|---|---|
| Catalan: Cap de pagès Català amb guitarra | |
 | |
| Artist | Joan Miró |
| Year | 1924 |
| Type | Oil painting technique and color pencils |
| Dimensions | 147 cm × 114 cm (58 in × 45 in) |
| Location | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
This work demonstrates the process of synthesis that Miró began using in his compositions later in his trip to France in the early 20s, after coming into contact with the Surrealists and Dadaists. Miró began to create his own sign language. In this version of the series, you can see the farmer's body with a hat on an intense blue background.
Head of a Catalan Peasant (10 March 1925)
edit| Head of a Catalan Peasant[24] | |
|---|---|
| Catalan: Cap de pagès Català | |
 | |
| Artist | Joan Miró |
| Year | 10 March 1925 |
| Type | Oil painting technique and color pencils |
| Dimensions | 92.4 cm × 73 cm (36.4 in × 29 in) |
| Location | National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh |
The version preserved in Edinburgh is the third of four Catalan Peasants that Miró made. You can understand this painting as a self-portrait of Miró, which affirms his Catalan identity.[citation needed] The work, conducted in 1925, was made at a time when Miró was gradually moving away from Cubism. Previously the work had been part of private collection of Roland Penrose. Currently the work is preserved in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It was acquired along with the help of the Art Fund, the Friends of the Tate Gallery and the Knapping Fund 1999.[24]
Head of a Catalan Peasant 1925
edit| Head of a Catalan Peasant[25] | |
|---|---|
| Catalan: Cap de pagès Català | |
| Artist | Joan Miró |
| Year | 1925 |
| Type | Oil painting technique and color pencils |
| Dimensions | 147 cm × 115 cm (58 in × 45 in) |
| Location | Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
This version is kept in Moderna Museet, Stockholm. It joined the museum with the registration number MOM 445, in the legacy of Gerard Bonnier in 1989. He had previously been owned by Jacques Viot, Galerie Pierre (Loeb), Private Samling, Marcel Mabille and Svensk-Fransk Konstgalleriet.[26] This version is one of the synthetic series, dominated by a blue a bit more intense than in the rest of the works. You can also see a black cross, surmounted by a small hat. The space is decorated with a pair of stars, one white and one black.
References
edit- ^ Sketch conserved at the Joan Miró Foundation[permanent dead link]
- ^ Sketch conserved at the Joan Miró Foundation[permanent dead link]
- ^ Sketch conserved at the Joan Miró Foundation[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Exhibition "Joan Miro. The ladder of escape"". Government of Catalunya. 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-17.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c "Joan Miró - Catalan Peasant with a Guitar". Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ^ a b "Head of a Catalan Peasant". National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2012-09-25. Retrieved 2011-11-17. - Information about the work
- ^ Catalogue number exposure: 86
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 210
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : no. 13.
- ^ Non numbered Catalogue
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 62
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 7
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 39
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 1
- ^ Catalogue number exposure : 17
- ^ Catalogue number exposure: 58
- ^ a b Catalogue number exposure : 95
- ^ "La Tate Modern obre dijous una gran retrospectiva de Miró" (in Catalan). El Periódico de Catalunya. 2011-04-12. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ^ "Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape". Institut Ramon Llull. 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-17. - Exposició coorganitzada
- ^ Catalogue number exposure 1
- ^ Catalogue number on the exhibit : 23
- ^ Catalogue number on the exhibit : 42
- ^ Catalogue number on the exhibit : 19, repr. p.26
- ^ a b "Tête de Paysan Catalan (Head of a Catalan Peasant)". National Gallery of Scotland. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ^ image of the work
- ^ "Information about the work on the website of the museum. Ref MOM 445". Moderna Museet. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
Further reading
edit- Clavero, Jordi.J (2010). Fundació Joan Miró. Foundation's Guide. Barcelona: Polígrafa. ISBN 978-84-343-1242-5.
- European paintings: an illustrated catalogue. National Gallery of Art. 1985. ISBN 978-0-89468-089-2. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
- Kramer, Hilton. "Modern Art at the National Gallery." The New Criterion 7, no. 8 (April 1989): 3. 1989
- Joan Miró; Christopher Green; Rosa Maria Malet; Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (1997). Joan Miró: Campesino catalán con guitarra, 1924 : 1 de octubre, 1997-11 de enero, 1998, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza. ISBN 9788488474377. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
- Dupin, Jacques. Miró. New York, 1962: 162, 166. 1962