THE COLLECTION
Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983)
Drawing - Collage
- Date:
- (1936)
- Medium:
- Crayon and decals on paper
- Dimensions:
- 25 1/4 x 17 1/8" (64.0 x 43.3 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller
- MoMA Number:
- 194.1956
- Copyright:
- © 2013 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration
March 14–July 9, 2012
In order to free the hand from the rational dictates of the mind, the Surrealists practiced a technique known as automatic drawing, in which the artist's subconscious mind guides a line's path across the page. In this work, Miró harnessed that practice to describe a series of organic shapes that add upto a body. Collaged color reproductions of a fish and a chick recall the first title Miró gave this drawing-collage, L'Origine de la bête humaine (The origin of the human animal). Bearing both breasts and a phallus, this figure blurs the distinction not only between human and animal but also between the sexes.
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