Joan Miró

The drawn forms in Miró’s Untitled—a conical, tipped weather vane, planets and comets in orbit, and a flaming horizon line—are schematically rendered yet recognizable. They float amid an abstract landscape of paper- collage circles in rust, brown, tan, and white. Untitled is one of twenty- two large- scale, chromatically austere collages Miró made between July and November 1929. In these works, he kept his drawn lines to a minimum. Miró described his collages as “drawings with new explorations into substance” and as “training exercises, shadowboxing, so as to hit harder and harder, in a tougher and more energetic way.”

Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893–1983
Untitled, 1929
Collage of cut and pasted papers (including flocked paper), and black Conté crayon, with white opaque watercolor, pen and black ink, and traces of graphite
Richard and Mary L. Gray, promised gift to the Art Institute of Chicago
Gray Collection Trust, Art Institute of Chicago
© Joan Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photography by Jamie Stukenberg, Professional Graphics Inc.