Constellations (Miró)
Encyclopedia
Constellations is a series of 23 small paintings on paper, initiated by Joan Miro
in 1939 in Varengeville-sur-Mer
and completed in 1941 between Mallorca
and Mont-roig del Camp
. The Fundació Joan Miró
preserves a work of this series and The Morning Star, one of the most important pieces of the series. The painter gave to his wife and she later donated to the Foundation.
, Miró, with his family escaped Paris and moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer
, a small town in Normandy
. This sentiment of escaping is clearly reflected in this series' harmonic and poetic production. At Varengeville-sur-Mer
he painted the top ten works in the series which was later called Constellations, beginning with The Dawn and The scale of evasion.
After escaping from France
Miró continued the series of constellations in Mallorca
, creasting a more complex group of ten more. The last three were created in 1941 in his ancestral home in Mont-roig del Camp
. Whilst completing this series he began the first sketches of the Barcelona Series
engravings, where he would repeat part of his imagery.
s, bird
and women
. Miró was making up his own mature language. The shapers are overlapping in different ways to create a specific colour space. This new idea was repeated constantly in the artist's work. Luckily the series are dated, allowing the sequence in chronological order.
The background of the works are all painted in soft tones, and the vast majority of works are full of intersecting black lines, with details painted in the primary colours. Miró used astral maps which were like representations of cosmic space.
Joan Punyet, grandson of the artist, said in an interview at TV3
:
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
in 1939 in Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A forestry and farming commune situated by the coast of the English Channel and in the Pays de Caux, some west of Dieppe at the junction of the D27, D75 and the D123 roads...
and completed in 1941 between Mallorca
Mallorca
Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
and Mont-roig del Camp
Mont-roig del Camp
Mont-roig del Camp is a town and municipality in the comarca of Baix Camp, Catalonia, Spain. It is in the middle of its comarca, between the Serra de Colldejou and the Mediterranean...
. The Fundació Joan Miró
Fundació Joan Miró
The ' is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró and located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia.-History:...
preserves a work of this series and The Morning Star, one of the most important pieces of the series. The painter gave to his wife and she later donated to the Foundation.
History
In August 1939, a month before the outbreak of the World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Miró, with his family escaped Paris and moved to Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A forestry and farming commune situated by the coast of the English Channel and in the Pays de Caux, some west of Dieppe at the junction of the D27, D75 and the D123 roads...
, a small town in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. This sentiment of escaping is clearly reflected in this series' harmonic and poetic production. At Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer
Varengeville-sur-Mer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A forestry and farming commune situated by the coast of the English Channel and in the Pays de Caux, some west of Dieppe at the junction of the D27, D75 and the D123 roads...
he painted the top ten works in the series which was later called Constellations, beginning with The Dawn and The scale of evasion.
After escaping from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Miró continued the series of constellations in Mallorca
Mallorca
Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
, creasting a more complex group of ten more. The last three were created in 1941 in his ancestral home in Mont-roig del Camp
Mont-roig del Camp
Mont-roig del Camp is a town and municipality in the comarca of Baix Camp, Catalonia, Spain. It is in the middle of its comarca, between the Serra de Colldejou and the Mediterranean...
. Whilst completing this series he began the first sketches of the Barcelona Series
Barcelona Series
The Barcelona Series is a series of fifty black and white lithographs made by Joan Miró and published in 1944. They are currently in the permanent collection of the Miró Foundation in Barcelona.-Description:...
engravings, where he would repeat part of his imagery.
Description
This series is characterized by the shapes of starStar
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
and women
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
. Miró was making up his own mature language. The shapers are overlapping in different ways to create a specific colour space. This new idea was repeated constantly in the artist's work. Luckily the series are dated, allowing the sequence in chronological order.
The background of the works are all painted in soft tones, and the vast majority of works are full of intersecting black lines, with details painted in the primary colours. Miró used astral maps which were like representations of cosmic space.
Joan Punyet, grandson of the artist, said in an interview at TV3
TV3 (Catalonia)
TV3 is the primary television channel of Catalan public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya, a subsidiary of the CCMA. TV3 broadcasts programs only in Catalan, with an optional dual track in the original language for some foreign-language series and movies...
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