''Labyrinth'' is the set of sculptures and ceramics created by the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

artist

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 ...

for Marguerite Aimé Maeght, between 1961 and 1981. It is currently located at the

Maeght Foundation The Maeght Foundation or Fondation Maeght () is a museum of modern art on the ''Colline des Gardettes'', a hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the southeast of France about from Nice. It was established by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in 1 ...

in Saint Paul de Vence, France. ''Labyrinth'' consists of 250 works, mainly sculptures, scattered in a terrace garden overlooking the sea, which illustrate the story of the connection between the Maeght family and Joan Miró. The

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...

is a walk through the mind and imagination of the artist.

History

In the early 1960s,

took an active part in Aimé Maeght's project in

Saint-Paul-de-Vence Saint-Paul-de-Vence (, literally ''Saint-Paul of Vence''; oc, Sant Pau de Vença; it, San Paolo di Venza) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. One of the oldest medie ...

near

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. Maeght visited the artist in Cala Major (

Majorca 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 ...

), and entrusted

Josep Lluís Sert Josep Lluís Sert i López (; 1 July 190215 March 1983) was a Spanish architect and city planner. Biography Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Sert showed keen interest in the works of his uncle, the painter Josep Maria Sert, and of Gaudí. He s ...

— the architect who designed

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 ...

Fundació Joan Miró The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; "Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art") is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). History The idea for the foundation w ...

— with building a museum and a garden with space for artworks by Miró. Miró designed the garden as a labyrinth. He worked with Josep Artigas and Joan Gardy Artigas to create the ceramic artworks for the garden, and with Sert to design the building and surrounding space. Miró prepared several mockups of the artworks, which were finally built in

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, and ceramics. These include ''La fourche'' ("The Fork", built in bronze in 1973) and ''Le Disque'' ("The Disk", built in ceramics that same year).

Description

The labyrinth, which Miró conceived as a maze, is a garden between the mountains and the sea. It is organised along three axis: the highest terrace, dominated by a massive concrete arch; a fork on the head of a person suspended in the air overlooking the walkway; and a masonry tower with a ceramic wall made by the artist. The labyrinth can be traversed in any direction, and an hommage to

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect from Spain known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, ''sui generis'' style. Most are located in Barcel ...

can be found (a round grey ceramic table reminiscent of

Park Güell Parc Güell ( ca, Parc Güell ; es, Parque Güell) is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Carmel Hill belongs to the mountain range of Collserola – t ...

). The sculptures include the ''Solar bird'' and the '' Lunar Bird'', which neighbour the figure of a giant goddess whose genitalia are covered with the shell of a giant tortoise. There is also a giant egg, the giant cosmic egg:

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

Fondation Maeght website
— location of the ''Labyrinth''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Labyrinth (Miro, Joan) Sculptures by Joan Miró Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in France Buildings and structures in Alpes-Maritimes