The Singing Fish, by Joan Miro

Miro once said: In my opinion, mastering freedom means mastering simplicity. Then, at most, a line, a color, is enough to make the picture.

The Singing Fish is instantly recognizable as the work of Miro, combining highly abstract shapes to represent the artist's imagination. The key focal point in this painting is the head of the fish which looks out to the top left of the canvas, with its eye represented by two abstract circles.

The Singing Fish is characterized by the use of a few pure tones (namely black and red), big simple forms and exceptional laconism in combination with the energy of poetic expression. This painting has a childlike simplicity and playfulness to it. Miro sought essential pictorial vocabulary in primitive sources, particularly prehistoric cave paintings of his native Spain. He used signs and symbols, composed of basic linear ingredients.