Artist: Joan Miró Spanish (1893-1983)
Title: Constellations
Plate: MP.100
Lithograph
from the "Affiches Originales" series.
Printed by Mourlot Freres in Paris, 1959.
Presented in 16 x 20 in. acid free, archival museum mat, with framing labels. Ready to frame. Shipped boxed flat via Fedex.
Certificate of Authenticity.
Sheet Size: 9 1/4 in x 12 1/2 in 23.5 cm x 32 cm
Price: $195.00
Constellations is a series of 23 small paintings on paper, In August 1939. A month before the outbreak of the World War II, 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, creating a more complex group of ten more.
Frontispiece of Constellations
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.
"I felt a deep desire to flee. I shut myself deliberately. The night, music and the stars began to play a role in my painting." Joan Miró
"... After the War, Miró returned to Paris, and it was here that he would truly discover lithography. I assigned one of our best press operators to Miró: Jean Célestin, who would become a close friend of the painter. The understanding that they shared from the start made for some excellent work. Miró was of a taciturn nature; Célestin would guess what it was he wanted, only a few words were necessary, Miró expressing briefly his idea, Célestin voicing his assent.
Keenly interested in the process, he wenton to produce several lithographs, in black, on stone, the magnificent Album 13series (1948) and several illustrative works for the books of his poet friendssuch as André Breton, Benjamin Péret, René Char, Tristan Tzara, Iliazd and André Verdet. For every exhibition he held at the gallery Maeght , he designed a poster, and further collaborated on the review Derrière le Miroir, for which he created some exceptional solo editions.
Towards the end of the sixties I proposed, as I had for Picasso, Chagall andBraque, that we compile a complete lithographic catalogue; he accepted and took direct part in the project. The first volume was published in 1972, with a preface by Michel Leiris and containing also twelve superb original compositions..." Fernand Mourlot
During the 1950s the renowned French printer, Fernand Mourlot, printed most of the "original" posters of the most important artists of the day. In 1959 they printed the series "Affiches Originales" for collectors. They are reduced lithographic versions of the "original" posters created by the contemporary masters, Picasso, Chagall, Braque, Matisse, Miró, Leger, and Dufy.