Joan Miró - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Thursday, June 27, 2019 | Phillips

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 28 June 2019

  • Provenance

    Galerie Maeght, Paris
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    Barcelona, Sala Gaspar, Joan Miró Sobreteixims i Escultures, May 1972, no. 2, n.p. (another example exhibited and illustrated)
    Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Pintura, escultura i sobreteixims de Miró a la Fundació, 1975, cat. no. 231, p. 129 (another example exhibited)
    Saint-Paul, Fondation Maeght, Joan Miró: Peintures Sculptures Dessins Céramiques 1956-1979, 7 July - 30 September 1979, no. 236, pp. 114 and 186 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 114)
    Karlsruhe, Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max-Palais, Joan Miró: Skulpturen, 24 September - 13 November 1983, no. 16, p. 17 (another example exhibited and illustrated, titled 'Gestalt', p. 30)
    Saint-Paul, Fondation Maeght, Hommage à Joan Miró, 10 March - 8 May 1984, no. 170, p. 36 (another example exhibited)
    Madrid, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Miró en las Colecciones del Estado, October - December 1987, no. 80, p. 95 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
    Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Miro: Gemälde, Plastiken, Zeichnungen und Graphik: Werke aus den Kunstsammlungen des spanischen Staates, 14 May - 31 July 1988, no. 80, pp. 19 and 111 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 111)
    Palma de Mallorca, Llonja, Escultures de Miró, December 1990 - February 1991, no. 17, p. 118 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 119)
    Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Joan Miró: Le metamorfosi della forma, 18 December 1999 - 25 April 2000, pp. 31-32, 40 and 101 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 101)
    Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Joan Miró: Desfilada d'obsessions, 14 June - 2 September 2001, no. 14, pp. 44-45 and 131 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 45)
    Saint-Paul, Fondation Maeght, Joan Miró: Métamorphoses des formes. Collection de la Fondation Maeght, 1 April - 25 June 2001, no. 98, pp. 105 and 226 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 105)
    Johannesburg, Standard Bank Gallery, The Magical Universe of Joan Miró, 19 September – 7 December 2002, pp. 30-31 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 31)
    Seville, Sala San Hermenegildo; Córdoba, Sala de Exposiciones Museísticas - CajaSur, Joan Miró, 3 May - 10 July 2005, no. 33, pp. 117 and 165 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
    Hangzhou, Zhejiang Art Museum, Parade of Obsessions: The Exhibition of Joan Miró's Artworks, 9 August - 25 September 2009, p. 21 (another example exhibited and illustrated, titled 'Figure')
    Pisa, Palazzo Blu, Joan Miró: I miti del Mediterraneo, 9 October 2010 - 23 January 2011, p. 145 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
    Brussels, Espace culturel ING, Joan Miró: peintre-poète, 24 March - 19 June 2011, p. 130 (another example exhibited and illustrated)
    Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol, Miró Sculpteur, 16 March – 31 July 2011, no. 106, p. 125 (another exampled exhibited and illustrated)
    Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Miró: and the Object, 29 October 2015 - 17 January 2016, no. 82, pp. 166 and 209 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 166)

  • Literature

    Jacques Dupin, Francesc Català-Roca and Joan Prats, Miró Sculpteur, Barcelona, 1972, no. 111 and 119, n.p. (another example illustrated)
    Fundació Joan Miró, Obra de Joan Miró: Pintura, escultura i sobreteixims a la col·lecció de la Fundació, Barcelona, 1979, no. 283, p. 167 (another example illustrated)
    Alain Jouffroy and Joan Teixidor, eds., Miró Sculptures, Paris, 1980, no. 157, p. 236 (another example illustrated, p. 113)
    Fundació Joan Miró, Obra de Joan Miró: Dibuixos, pintura, escultura, ceràmica, tèxtils, Barcelona, 1988, no. 1597, p. 435 (another example illustrated)
    Emilio Fernández Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, Joan Miró: Sculptures. Catalogue raisonné 1928-1982, Paris, 2006, no. 180, pp. 182 and 387 (another example illustrated, p. 182)

  • Catalogue Essay

    ‘In an artwork, you should be able to discover new things every time you see it.’ – Joan Miro

    Poetically and magically re-inventing traditional sculptural depictions of the female form, birds and figures, the current selection of works from the Fiterman Collection wonderfully demonstrate Joan Miró’s constant challenge of artistic norms since his initial spectacular emergence as a sculptor between 1946 and 1949 with the creation, modelling and casting of Lunar Bird and Solar Birds.
    From the mid 1960’s, Miró adopted assemblage in the modelling of his women, birds and figures; subjects that appear intermittently throughout Miró’s output and typically assigned titles such as Personnage, Oiseau, Femme. Miró's assemblage sculptures, rooted in Surrealist collage and Goya’s Caprices, unite the marvel of childhood joy with the rustic wit of the Catalans. Reminiscent of ‘that brand of confused alchemy derived from Miró’s close friend Marcel Duchamp … Miró changed the experience of pictorial invention with his peasant-like, dogmatic instinct. He approached and re-examined the most familiar subjects – a pebble, a tap, a leaf, twig, piece of soap, a toy or a Catalan cake.’ (Jacques Dupin, in Emilio Fernández Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, Joan Miró: Sculptures. Catalogue raisonné 1928-1982, Paris, 2006, p. 21).

    Objects collected such as iron, stones and other found and discovered treasures were combined during the evolution of his bronzes, thereby altering their artistic purpose and infusing the final work with a dynamic poetic spirit. ‘The real, almost unique inventiveness of Miró the sculptor lay in his work with assemblage. In the beginning, strange, disparate elements gradually evolved during the process of discovery to become recognisable pieces – parts of a construction in which they increasingly revealed themselves … to form a sculpture that was articulate and that unfolded like a musical fugue and variations.’ (Jacques Dupin, in Emilio Fernández Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, Joan Miró: Sculptures. Catalogue raisonné 1928-1982, Paris, 2006, p. 22).

    Through these assemblage works, Miro was able to escape the constraints of everyday life. Explaining his process of using the found items he collected on his walks in the countryside, Miró noted, 'I feel attracted to an object by a magnetic force, without the slightest premeditation, and then I feel myself being drawn to another object which is added to the first, and in combination they create a poetic shock, preceded by that visual and physical revelation which makes poetry truly moving…' (the artist, quoted in Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, Boston, 1986, p. 125).

    Conceived between 1970 and 1978, the following examples, Personnage, Femme and Personnage et oiseau, take Miró’s key motifs as their subject, delightfully conveying femininity and expressing the fantasy of found materials becoming animate and alive, leaving representation and reality to arouse the imagination. Miró devised a new poetry and denotation that conjure unconscious primitive forms and prehistoric traditions.

PROPERTY FROM THE MILES AND SHIRLEY FITERMAN COLLECTION

Ο129

Joan Miró

Personnage

incised with the artist's signature and number 'Miró 2/2' lower edge
bronze with green-grey patina
69.7 x 33 x 15.5 cm (27 1/2 x 12 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.)
Conceived in 1970 and cast by Fundició Parellada, Barcelona, this work is number 2 from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proof and 2 nominative casts realised in 1973 and 1987.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠

Sold for £175,000

Contact Specialist

Tamila Kerimova

Director, Specialist
Head of Day Sale
44 20 7318 4065

tkerimova@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 28 June 2019