The ''Barcelona Series'' is a series of fifty black and white lithographs made by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

and published in 1944. They are currently in the permanent collection of the Miró Foundation in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Description

This print series can be considered a forerunner to Miró's 1941 oil series ''

Constellations A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellation ...

''. These black and white lithographs depict deformed images of animal and human figures. The pictures were a reaction to the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, which was being waged at the time they were created. Even prior to the war, Miró had painted figures which expressed the pain of the forthcoming conflict in his ''Wild Paintings'', such as in '' Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement''. Here he used the printing skills he had been experimenting with since the 1930sBarcelona Series
Miró Foundation, accessed September 2011 to create a series that can be interpreted as either 50 individual pieces of art or as only one. Miró includes distorted ogres who are impotent. The ogres could represent Franco and his generals, but are known also to be based on the fictitious dictator,

Ubu Roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de P ...

, who was created by

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

in 1898. The printing of these lithographs during the war required 350 sheets of paper. It is thought that the limited availability of paper led to the print run being limited to a total of just seven sets. After the publication of these prints Miró went to Paris in 1947, again taking a leading place in an exhibition of

Surrealist Art Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, confirming his important position within that movement.

Provenance

The images were created between 1939 and 1944 by the artist. They were printed at Miralles, a small printer in Barcelona, in 1944, after Miró returned from his self-imposed exile in France. Only five sets were created of the series, together with two artist's proof sets. Today only the location of two of these series is known. One set is in the Joan Miró Foundation and a second set is owned by the descendants of

Joan Prats Joan Prats (Barcelona, 1891 - Barcelona, 1970 ) was a Catalan art promoter and a close friend of Joan Miró. Life Joan Prats was born in 1891 to a family who sold hats. He was trained as an artist in the Llotja School, where he first met Joan M ...

. Because of the censorship in Spain under

General Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...

following the civil war, it was impossible to exhibit these pictures. Miró at the time was in internal exile in

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

Relevant Exhibitions

*1984 - Casa Elizalde . - Joan Miró ''Barcelona series''Navarro Arisa, JJ. " The series 'Barcelona', Miró, is exposed as a tribute to the artist of the city "(in Spanish). El Pais , 26/01/1984. ccessed: 18 August 2011 (Clavero, 2010) p.84.85

References

Sources

* {{Joan Miró 1944 paintings Paintings by Joan Miró Paintings in Barcelona