Joan Miró
(Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983)
Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró (Wonders with Acrostic Variations in the Garden of Miró)
1975
lithograph on paper
49.7 x 35.5 cm
Inv. no. 31013
BBVA Collection Spain
Throughout his long-standing career, one of Joan Miró’s main goals was to create a fusion of painting and poetry. A book lover from a very early age, he always had a profound passion for the word, rendered in his work in many compositions whose marks seem to conjure up a kind of abstract calligraphy.
His interest in poetry led to countless collaborations with great writers whose books Miró illustrated. That is the case of Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró (Wonders with Acrostic Variations in the Garden of Miró), published in 1975, a collection of poems Rafael Alberti had dedicated to Miró and for which the artist created twenty lithographs.
In iconographic terms, this body of work can be divided into two large groups representing two different styles: one group is made up by seven pieces created with forceful brushstrokes recreating lines drawn with a pencil and brushwork with Indian ink and wash, reflecting the influence of Eastern calligraphy and in the artist’s practice; the other comprises thirteen works, in which a number of non-figurative characters, highly characteristic of Miró’s imagery, are surrounded by stars and spheres floating in the background. A good example is the lithograph in hand, which illustrates Miró’s particular dreamlike cosmos; a vision that, although indebted to his beginnings in Surrealism, provides an entirely personal rereading, much more optimistic and abstract than those of other exponents of that movement which Miró discovered in 1920s Paris. Maravillas con variaciones acrósticas en el jardín de Miró (Wonders with Acrostic Variations in the Garden of Miró) gives us a chance to delve into the painter’s visual universe and understand the many and diverse phases of his practice.
