La Spirale by Joàn Miró, 1893-1983

Joàn Miró, 1893-1983
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

La Spirale

Original etching with aquatint printed in colours. 1979. Signed in pencil. Proof for the edition of 45 impressions only. (15 impressions on japan paper, as here, and 30 on wove). Printed at the Atelier Morsang Paris 1979. Issued in the series: La Spirale-Miranda, 1979. Published by
Dutrou, Paris, 1979.
Ref: Cramer - Miro no 245 (12)

Extremely fine strong impression with rich unfaded colours. On cream handmade japon nacré paper. Excellent condition. Full sheet. Worked to the full sheet size, as printed. Sheet:
11 1/4 x 7 5/8ins (285x193mm)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

Miro?s interest in intaglio printmaking - that is using techniques such as etching, engraving, aquatint etc. - was first inspired through his contact with Stanley Hayter in the circle of the Surrealists in the 1930?s and even further by the time that he spent in Hayter?s studio Atelier 17 in New York in the 1940?s. After the war, back in Paris he came into contact with Georges Visat who further increased his understanding of the way that plates could be worked in terms of texture and colour. This understanding became a deep-seated passion, and the results of this passion are never seen to better effect than in the small scale etchings that Miro drew in the 1960?s and 70?s.

On a small scale the range of textures in the line and the brilliance of the ink colours can take on a special intensity and emotion. Lines bitten with a broad stroke, or roughened by a coarse gouge or open acid, are linked to sweeps, blobs and spatters of tone printed in brilliant sparkling colours. The reduction of these techniques to a small scale can, as here, produce works with an intensity of sparkling richness which makes them amongst the most admired of Miro?s late graphic works.

La Spirale was printed in an edition of 45 impressions only.