Galerie Maeght, Barcelona
Galeria Guillermo de Osma, Madrid
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 4, 2005, lot 343
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró, Catalogue raisonné. Paintings, 1976-1981, vol. 6, Paris, 2004, no. 1827, illustrated p. 94

This work is executed on an unprimed wood plank with some losses to the wood at each corner. The wood grain is visible and intrinsic to the work throughout. There are pin holes near center left and right edges which are original to the work. There are two horizontal stretcher crossbars affixed onto the reverse near upper and lower edges. The upper crossbar is hinged to the frame. Under UV light: there is no apparent inpainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Of Miro's later work, Jacques Dupin writes, "During the final years of his life, Miró continued to execute magnificent paintings, densely inhabited, insurgent dances...The simplified aspect of these paintings evokes the barrenness of winter, long after the charm of falling leaves has worn thin" (Jacques Dupin, Miro, Barcelona, 1993, pp. 351-52).  The present work embodies this stark intensity, resplendent in a variety of gestural brushstrokes and deliberate drippings.   In an attempt to transform the wood's rigid grain, Miró imparts life through color.  The ambiguous title and the absence of figurative expression yield to the creative associations of the human mind.  We as observers are consumed by this interpretive freedom, left to plunge wholeheartedly into the depths of our own fantastical whims.  Dupin continues to assert that "Miró emphasized the painting's structure and pared its gesture to the bone.  He emphasized contrast, and revealed the armature and the framework...[These works] seem to live outside time, and outside the cycles and pendulum effects we are accustomed to finding in his work.  Their existence is abrupt and detached, like death-stones, swirls of sand in a desert, or cliffs jutting into the sea" (ibid p. 352).