A common myth around the story of the Impressionist painters such
as Claude Monet, was
that they executed their work entirely en plein air. the reality
being that most of the painting was in fact carried out in the
studio. There is an analogy here with the work of Miro: despite
notions of Automatism in his work, he in fact planned his
paintings meticulously. He would begin with a number of sketches
that often contained descriptions of the colours to be used,
before 'scaling-up' the work, often on to large canvases such as
this, which measures nearly two metres (six and a half feet) in
height.
Miro's dream-like visions are created
on a complex ground, made up of glazed layers of paint. The
figures in the composition are fractured, often having a whimsical
or humorous quality, being images of playfully distorted animal
forms or twisted organic shapes. Yet they always had a point or
points of reference, symbolized either by recognizable shapes,
written notations or both. Sometimes these ethereal organic forms
ore reduced to simple lines or spots, but nearly always with
splashes of colour. This period is marked by a number of
experiments with collage following a particular crisis when he
affirmed the 'murder of painting'. These experiments are
self-evident in Snail, Woman, Flower, Star.
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