Spectacular Miró Exhibit

Friday October 12 was another warm day with a high of 26C.   It started cloudy but became sunny later in the afternoon.  After breakfast, we headed out and decided to have a coffee at Nuance, a large coffee shop and brunch place next to our apartment building.  Our plan was to walk all the way out to the Grand Palais to see the Miró retrospective, making stops along the way.  As the museum is open until 10:00 p.m., our aim was to get there by 7:30 p.m.  It was too beautiful a day to be inside.

Waiting for our coffee at Nuance next door -- Alain has his new electric blue Jack Gomme bag

 We walked over to the right bank, passing a memorial to 112 people from one building, including 40 young children who were deported in 1942 and died in German concentration camps.

Very moving plaque, as a considerable number of residents of one apartment building were deported

Crossing the Seine

We next stopped at City Hall (L'Hôtel de Ville) at the Tourism Office.  It now seems to be Paris's main tourism office, as a large one on Rue Pyramides has closed down.   On the outside fence, there was a poster exhibit celebrating 100 years of fighting for freedom of the press.  The exhibit was put together by the National Union of Journalists that was celebrating their 100th anniversary.  Very timely, given the attacks on the press in recent years.  The posters outlined events in a chronological order.

The last poster was of imprisoned Turkish journalists.

We continued our walk on Rue Rivoli to the Palais Royal, one of our favourite places.  We passed a number of magazine posters featuring Charles Aznavour, who recently died.  A French icon.

We visited Épice, our favourite scarf place.  I bought a wool sweater with one of their flower designs.  We didn't buy any scarves this time.   We then stopped for a coffee at Café Kitsuné.

Entering the Palais Royal

Alain

The leaves are almost gone, but folks were sitting out in the sun

Sunning themselves near the fountain

We sat at a table with two young Chinese women who had been living in Paris for the last 10 years. One of them took this picture.

Having coffee and pistachio chiffon cake at Café Kitsuné at the Palais Royal  

We continued our walk up Rue de l'Opéra- our destination a pop up store for Marithé + Francois Girbaud.  They used to have at least four stores in Paris, which closed down a number of years ago.   They changed to a touring pop-up model, but it appears they now have plans for one permanent store in Paris.  

Inside of the store 

Alain with a rack of T-shirts

Alain bought a pair of jeans and I bought a pair of pants.  We had a long chat with the manager, who was figuring out how to give us our VAT refund.

We then went to the Opera building and bought two tickets to see the ballet on Tuesday evening.  Then we walked down Rue Royale, where Alain bought his second pain au chocolat pistache of the trip!

It was getting dark as we passed by the Obelisk.  Good views of the Eiffel Tower as well. 

                                                                               Obelisk at sunset

                                                                 View of the Eiffel Tower

We arrived at the Grand Palais.  While the museum was busy, there was no waiting line and we took our time going through the major retrospective of Miró's work.  It was a fabulous exhibit and there was a lot of detail accompanying most of the pictures.   This was one exhibit where I liked almost every piece of art--- took too many pictures.

Posters for the retrospective, outside the Grand Palais

The exhibit was generally organized chronologically.  Joan Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893 and died in Palma, Mallorca in 1983.  He also spent time at his parents' summer home and farm in Mont-Roig, just outside of Barcelona.  As the exhibit notes state "his homeland, Catalonia, offered him inspiration, Paris was his first springboard, and Palma, Mallorca provided the great studio he had always dreamed of".

Miró was a unique artist- who from the 1920s on, expressed his desire to "murder painting" and develop innovative practices.  He was a painter, sculpture, muralist and ceramicist and refused to be pigeon-holed into any artistic school.

The first section focused on his paintings which he described as the work of a Catalan Fauve, who is searching for his own voice.  These were wonderful paintings, full of colour and broad brushstrokes. My commentary under each picture is derived from the commentaries in the exhibit.

Nord-Sud 1917-the title comes from a French magazine founded by a French poet

La Rose 1916- showed new techniques used by the Fauvists and Cubists

Portrait of Vicens Nubiola (Homme à la pipe) 1917  This highly expressive portrait echoes the self-portraits of Van Gogh.  1917 was also the year Miró began reading Letters to Theo.

Self-Portrait 1919  Miró split his time between Paris and Mont-roig in the summer of 1919.  He portrayed himself in his Catalan peasant's jacket.  This picture was given to Picasso by Dalmau (gallery owner) in April 1921, who kept it for the rest of his life.

 In 1921, Miró lived at 39 Rue Delambre (Paris 14e) and worked in a studio located at 45 Rue Blomet.  He became friends with his neighbour André Masson who introduced him to poets and writers.  He also became close fiends with Picasso.

La Ferme (The Farm) 1921-22  This was painted in Mont-roig.  Wonderful detail about the place that taught him about art and life.  He moved away from Fauvism to favour a finer line revealing the smallest elements.  The picture was purchased by Ernest Hemingway in 1925.

Alain in front of Le Cheval, la pipe et la fleur rouge 1920 (Horse, Pipe and Red Flower)

One of my favourite early works--- influence of Art Nouveau and Gaudi 's mosaics

 During 1923, Miró was working in Paris at his studio but returned to Mont-roig for the summer.  He moved from visible reality to a system of signs.  In 1924, André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto was published.

Main à la poursuite d'un oiseau (Hand Chasing a Bird) 1926   During the summers of 1926-27, Miró worked on two series of Imaginary Landscapes.   These were exhibited in a prestigious Paris gallery.

Tête de paysan catalan (Head of a Catalan Peasant) 1925 This picture had the red barretina, the traditional Catalan hat.

An old favourite-- I have an old swatch watch with this picture on its face.  Peinture- poème ("Photo: cici est la couleur de mes rêves) Photo: This is the Colour of My Dreams 1925  This is also on the cover of the exhibit catalogue.

Peinture (Femme, journal, chien) (Painting (Woman, Newspaper, Dog) 1925

La Carnaval d'Arlequin 1924-25 (painted at his Paris studio when he was attempting to capture his hunger induced hallucinations - contained elements that would recur- a ladder, insects, cat and black triangle symbolizing the Eiffel Tower).

There was a room with pictures of compatriots and friends of Miró.

Picasso and Miró, Vallauris, 1948

Peinture (La Tache rouge) Painting (The Red Spot) 1925  

Peinture (Le Fou du roi) (Painting (The King's jester) 1926

Painting 1927 -Forces of life and death--- red sphere at top of the painting evoking the theme of the Catalan peasant and his traditional hat

Le Cheval de Cirque (The Circus Horse ) 1927 The white line could represent the whip used by trainers in the ring.

 With the rise of fascism, the grotesque and troubling took root in Miró's work.  In 1935, a year before the Spanish Civil War, Miró launched a cycle known as the "wild paintings" populated by grimacing faces.   He also did a series of paintings on masonite in the summer of 1936.  He was forced to flee to Paris in 1936.  

Femme 1934  From October to November 1934 in Mont-roig,
Miró produced a series of large pastels he named "Wild Paintings".  

Oiseaux et insects 1938

Painting on masonite 1936-- Miró painted 27 identically-sized paintings.

Flight of a Bird over the plain II 1939

In the summer of 1939, Miró moved with his family to the Clos des Sansonnets in Varengeville-sur-mer  (a small village on the Normandy coast) where a number of artists and writers were living.  He painting a series of Constellations between 1939-41.  These were successfully exhibited in New York in 1945.

Woman at the Edge of the Lake made Iridescent by the Passage of a Swan 1941

Woman in Revolt 1938

Figures and Bird in the Night 1942

 On April 26, 1937, the Germans bombed Guernica.  In order to raise funds to help Republican Spain, Miró was asked to design a stamp, which would later be enlarged for a limited edition poster.  The Spanish government also commissioned Miró to decorate the Pavillion of the Spanish Republic  for the Universal Exhibition held in Paris from May 25- November 25 1937.  Miró produced a large seven metre wall panel depicting a Spanish peasant revolt.  It was displayed across from Picasso's Guernica.

Aidez Spain--- the stamp and poster

Miró working on the mural

Picture of Spanish Pavillion

In 1942, Miró contacted an old friend Josep Llorens i Artigas who was a ceramacist.  They worked together on many fascinating pieces .

The Bull Race 1943

Woman and Bird in the Night

Self-Portrait 1937-38-60

 Miró also began a series of sculptures in 1966.  All were very humous or subversive.

Sir and Madam 1969

Woman 1969- he often used objects he found throughout his travels

Copy of Exhibition Book

There was a room with three monumental works created in 1961 at his studio in Palma, Mallorca.  Blue I, Blue II and Blue III.

Miró was very prolific during the latter part of his life.  Humour and a spirit of play enter a lot of his works.

Figures and Birds Making Merry for the Approaching Night 1968

Silence 1968

There were three very serious works done in 1974 after the death sentence was handed down by the Franco regime to the Catalan anarchist student, Puig Antich.  This was Miró's final triptych.  The thick black line evokes a face in profile.  Without knowing it, he completed this triptych on the very day Antich was executed.

The Hope of a Condemned Man I, II and III

Woman, Bird, Star (Homage to Pablo Picasso) This painting contains the three essential elements of Miro's  symbolism: the woman, the bird and the star with a colour palette of Mallorca.  On April 8, 1973, five days after completing his painting, he learned of the death of Picasso.  He wrote in Catalan on the back of the painting beside the title Homenatge a Pablo Picasso (Tribute to Pablo Picasso).

Alain being colourful

A room with later life paintings and sculpture

Miró in his studio in Palma

It was an absolutely fabulous exhibit.  We were there for about two hours and then took the Metro back to our apartment for a very late, light dinner.