Personagge

Painted in 1973, a few months after Miró’s eightieth birthday, this canvas is characteristic of his final period. The use of black as almost the only tone and the limited space devoted to other colours is typical of the artist’s work in the 1970s.

Miró’s late style is the result of his lengthy career. Personagge thus involves all the elements characteristic of this artist’s unique universe: the analysis of reality through a highly individual language of signs; the use of biomorphic forms; and the use of flat zones of colour and strong contrasts between black and brilliant shades. The freedom that Miró achieved in these late works is the result of the years that he spent in Paris and of his membership of the Surrealist group from 1924 onwards. Nonetheless, the present work is far from those of his Surrealist period and from the Constellations of the 1940’s. During his years of maturity Miró simplified his forms and colours and revealed a remarkable sense of rhythm. In a sense, it would seem that the knowledge that he acquired allowed him to do “more with less”. During the period of the present work the artist established a direct relationship with the canvas, abandoning his earlier practice of making preparatory drawings or collages. It is not by chance that by this date Miró had already produced various large canvases that he executed in a direct manner and with no previous preparation. This lack of premeditation gives his late work a notable force and impact.

The present canvas was exhibited in the major retrospective on the artist held at the Grand Palais and at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1974. By that date Miró was an internationally renowned artist but this degree of recognition did not, however, diminish his dedication to his work or the close relationship that he maintained throughout his life with his native land.