Joan Miró

(Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983)

Quelques fleurs pour des amis

n.d.

lithograph on paper

36 x 26 cm

Inv. no. 557167

BBVA Collection Spain


Joan Miró’s Je travaille comme un jardinier (I Work Like a Gardener), a set of 9 colour lithographs in an edition of 145, was published in 1963. Coinciding with the publication, Miró painted a series of watercolours in an elegant surrealist style, very much in line with the visual investigations he was carrying out at the time. He dedicated that suite to a number of friends, including Max Ernst (1891-1976), Nina Kandinsky, Aimé Maegth and Jacques Dupin.

One year later the artist took part in the illustration of Quelques fleurs pour des amis, published by Société Internationale d’Art XXe siècle of Paris, with texts by the playwright Eugène Ionesco. The book—in an edition of 283 and with 5 lithographs created by Miró—also included the 32 watercolours printed in Vitela Arches paper that he had dedicated to his friends the year before.

This lithograph dedicated to the dealer Pierre Matisse and his second wife, Patricia O´Connell, belongs to that body of work. Pierre Matisse, the youngest son of Henri Matisse (1869-1954), was a key figure in the cultural scene of his time. The dealer’s dedication to the artists he represented was famous, claiming that they were the source of all the energy and strength he invested in the development of his work: I got my strength from my artists. He had many great artists on his roster, including Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) and Yves Tanguy (1900-1955). And also Joan Miró, whom he met in 1930 and whose friendship would deepen with time. In 1932 the Catalan painter had his first solo show at his friend’s gallery, the first in a long list of exhibitions and commissions. This work, dedicated to Matisse, speaks of the importance Miró gave to their friendship.

Built around the use of the line, this work shows motifs rendered in the artist’s signature primary colours: red, blue, and yellow. We can also see graphic marks ending in dots and a small red circle highlighted by a grey edge in the top left corner, equally characteristic of Miró’s painterly imagery. In short, this beautiful example of Miró’s oeuvre pays testimony to the fruitful relationship between the painter and his dealer.