Joan Miró – Constellations

Description

Joan Miró, Constellations is an Illustrated Book with one lithograph and 22 pochoirs made after the original gouaches.  Title page signed by Miro in blue pen and Breton in red pen. The Lithograph is signed and numbered in pencil.  In original beige canvas covered box.  Poems by André Breton.  Published by Pierre Matisse, New York.  Printed by Mourlot, Paris, Daniel Jacomet et Cie., Paris. Cramer 58.

Miro left Paris in 1939 for Varengeville-sur-Mer in Normandy, and it was here an important new body of work was formed – a series of twenty-three gouaches, which became known as the Constellations. They are amongst the artist’s most intricately constructed works, exploring ideas linked to regenerative processes located within nature. Heavily influenced by the turmoil of World War II, his work seems to reflect upon the fragile, transitory quality of existence. Each Constellation piece depicts a moment in time, a microcosm of life: captured in weightless, suspended animation. In 1945, the Constellations were smuggled out of Europe for a Pierre Matisse exhibit in NYC.  In 1959, under the direction of pochoir master Daniel Jacomet, 22 of the original 23 gouache Constellations were made into 350 pochoir suites. Andre Breton was immediately inspired by the series and wrote accompanying poems – what would become his final poetic works. Breton is most known for co-founding Surrealism and writing the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 in which he defines the movement as “pure psychic automatism.”