''Personnages Oiseaux'' (''Bird People'') is one of

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 ...

's largest works in the United States and his only glass

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

. It was created between 1972 and 1978.

Description

Miró created it for Wichita State University's Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

. The mural is one of Miró's largest two-dimensional projects, undertaken when he was 79 and completed when he was 85 years of age.Bush, Martin H. ''The Edwin A

Ulrich Museum The Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art is a museum located on the campus of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. The museum opened on December 7, 1974 in McKnight Art Center, where it is still located today. It is best known for the large Venetia ...

of Art, Wichita State University.''

: The Edwin A

of Art, Wichita State University, 1980 Fabrication of the mural was completed in 1977, but Miró did not consider it finished until the installation was complete. The glass mosaic was a first for Miró, and although he hoped to create others, he died before achieving this goal. Intending to come to the dedication of the mural in 1978, he fell at his studio in

Palma Palma or La Palma means palm in a number of languages and may also refer to: Geography Africa *Palma, Mozambique, city ** Palma District *La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, Spain **La Palma (DO), a ''Denominación de Origen'' for wines from the ...

(

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 ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

), and was unable to travel to the event. The entire south wall of the

is the foundation for the 28 ft by 52 ft (8.53 m x 15.85 m) mural, composed of one million pieces of marble and Venetian glass mounted on specially treated wood, attached to the concrete wall on an aluminum grid. The work was a gift of the artist. Donor groups paid for its fabrication by Ateliers Loire Ateliers Loire, tourism link in English
/ref> of

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and for its installation. The

also acquired the 5 ½ ft by 12 ft (1.7 m x 3.7 m ) oil on canvas maquette for the mural, but it has since been sold to establish a fund to support the museum's acquisitions and any repairs needed to the mural. The entire mural was originally assembled by an artisan at Ateliers Loire using Miró's maquette as a guide. Fabricated under Miró's personal direction and completed in 1977, the 80 panels comprising the mural were shipped to WSU, and the mural was installed on the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

in 1978. The mural is a unique late work in the artist's career: one of Miró's largest two-dimensional works in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and his only one in this medium.

A six year conservation

In 2011 it was announced that the mural would be taken down. The mural, which had been losing

tesserae A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus. Historical tesserae The oldest known tesserae ...

, was the subject of a two-year study to work out how it could be conserved. The mural is to be taken apart and recreated with a stainless steel backing. The conservation was estimated to cost three million dollars. The mural was reinstalled at the

of Art in 2016.

References

{{Wichita State University Murals in Kansas Joan Miró American mosaics Surrealist works Wichita State University Birds in art