Joan Miró. Mural Painting. Barcelona, October 18, 1950-January 26, 1951

Joan Miró Mural Painting Barcelona, October 18, 1950-January 26, 1951

  • The Museum of Modern Art, Floor 3, Exhibition Galleries

This frieze of figures with lyrical black contours floating on a ground of browns and blues was commissioned for the Harvard University graduate dining hall at the suggestion of architect Walter Gropius. Miró executed Mural Painting in Barcelona after his sketches had been approved. His subject is thought to be a bullfight with a large bull in the middle flanked by a banderillero on the left and a matador on the right. The figure second from the left has been read as the rear of a picador’s horse. Ten years after installing this commission in the dining hall, Miró replaced it with a more durable ceramic tile version, and the original painting was acquired by the Museum.

Gallery label from 2007.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
75 5/8 × 235 × 2 5/8" (192.1 × 596.9 × 6.7 cm)
Credit
Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund
Object number
592.1963
Copyright
© 2019 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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