Constellations (Miró)
Painting series by Joan Miró / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Constellations are a series of 23 paintings on paper produced from January 1940 to September 1941 by the Spanish surrealist Joan Miró. Art historians and museum curators have said of the paintings: "Universally considered one of the greatest achievements of his career",[1]: 1 p. "The Constellations, as a group and singly, are among the miracles that art occasionally bestows",[2]: 70 p. "masterpiece of world painting",[3]: 5 p. "perhaps the most intricate, most elaborately developed of all Miró's compositions",[4]: 81 p. "genuine masterpieces",[5]: 57 p. "one of the most brilliant episodes of his career",[6]: 100 p. and "As an optical experience the Constellations are entirely unprecedented, having no forerunners even in Miró's own work".[7]: 341 p.
Constellations (a series of paintings) | |
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Artist | Joan Miró |
Year | 1940 - 1941 |
Movement | Surrealism |
Dimensions | 38 cm × 46 cm (15 in × 18 in) |
Location | Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Fundació Joan Miró, Kimbell Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, and various private collections |
"In sum, given that music, nature, and life itself are the artist's sources of inspiration";[8]: 17 p. the paintings boldly celebrate nocturnal themes of wonder, joy, nature, love, and escape, although they were painted during one of the most troubled periods of the artist life. Initiated only months after the violence and chaos of the Spanish Civil War in his homeland while Miró was exiled in France; and later completed after retreating back to an uncertain reception in fascist Spain, as the Nazis invaded France. Exhibiting the paintings in fascist Spain or occupied France were not viable options, so the series was discreetly exported to the USA in 1944 and first exhibited in New York City at the closing of the Second World War in 1945.[1]: 3 p. The exhibition appeared as a revelation to an apprehensive, exiled faction of the European avant-garde and intellectuals as the first indication concerning the status of art in Europe during World War II. André Breton wrote that it was "the note of wild defiance of the hunter expressed by the grouse's love song"[2]: 71 p. At the same time they were a direct influence on an emerging generation of abstract expressionist artists, particularly Jackson Pollock and the "all-over" aesthetic.[2]: 71 p. [7]: 22, 156 p.