Figure in a State of Metamorphosis, 1936, is a wonderfully emotive example of Joan Miró’s revolutionary exploration through spontaneous drawing into the workings of the human psyche. The artist’s symbolistic drawings of the 1930s exposed the unconscious mind, creating dream-like and surrealist imagery. Many artistic and literary figures were fascinated by Miró’s artistic attitude. The French writer and poet André Breton claimed that Miró showed the ‘poetic reality’i of life through his art.
Miró executed Figure in a State of Metamorphosis in February of 1936, a few months prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. While Miró was not overtly political, he nevertheless was known to support the Republican fighters due to his own artistic beliefs of liberalism, emphasising in an interview that ‘freedom has meaning for me and I will defend it at any cost’.ii The context in which Miró created Figure in a State of Metamorphosis makes this work particularly poignant. With the impending political and social unrest, Miro depicted an abstracted, imaginary world beyond the hostile reality of his country. His works inspired by metamorphosis were also some of his final before fleeing to France amidst the terror of the war. With arms outstretched, caught in movement, set against a gouache wash background, the figure suggested is in state of transition, foreshadowing Miró’s own transition from the life he led in Spain.
• A selection of Joan Miró’s prints and works on paper were recently exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (10 November 2020-5 September 2021).
