Joan Miró. Still Life with Old Shoe. Paris, January 24-May 29, 1937

Joan Miró Still Life with Old Shoe Paris, January 24-May 29, 1937

  • Not on view

Miró created Still Life with Old Shoe in Paris over a four-month period of intense concentration, working from life for the first time in many years. The painting eschews simple categorization. It is both a still life and a landscape: the irregular back edge of the tabletop can be read as a horizon line. The objects are not to scale, and they are isolated in discrete cells, creating a formal rupture that calls to mind Miró’s work in collage. The color is acidic, highly saturated, and dissonant. For Miró this painting captured a "profound and fascinating reality."

Gallery label from Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927—1937, November 2, 2008–January 12, 2009.
Additional text

Miró created Still Life with Old Shoe in Paris over a four-month period of intense concentration, working from life for the first time in many years. The painting eschews simple categorization. It is both a still life and a landscape: the irregular back edge of the tabletop can be read as a horizon line. The objects are not to scale, and they are isolated in discrete cells, creating a formal rupture that calls to mind Miró's work in collage. The color is acidic, highly saturated, and dissonant. For Miró this painting captured a "profound and fascinating reality."

Gallery label from 2015.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
32 x 46" (81.3 x 116.8 cm)
Credit
Gift of James Thrall Soby
Object number
1094.1969
Copyright
© 2023 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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Provenance Research Project

This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.

Galerie Pierre (Pierre Loeb), Paris. 1937
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. From Pierre Loeb, January - May, 1938
Mr. and Mrs. C. Earle Miller, Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Acquired from Pierre Matisse, May 1938 - February 1944
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Reacquired from Earle Miller, February - March, 1944
James Thrall Soby (1906-1979), New Canaan, Connecticut. Acquired from Pierre Matisse by exchange (for a Derain still life), March 15, 1944 - 1969
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of James Thrall Soby, February 1969

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