Figure

Between 1928 and 1934 Joan Miró approaches the techniques of collage and building objects as a means of anti-pictorial rebellion against the traditional concepts of art. In his final period, from the sixties onwards, he aims to create a series of works that preserve his traditional and fascinating attraction to objects, yet the clear desire to build a corpus of sculptures leads him to the use of one of the most ancient techniques from this discipline: casting.The Museo Reina Sofía’s collection of Miró sculptures, consisting of 43 works dating from 1967 to 1981, responds to this criterion. They are works that arise from a great variety of always humble objects, and that after a long process of definition in which he prepared a multitude of drawings and sketches, was completed with the casting and the patinating of the bronze in the Parellada workshop in Barcelona.The work Figure (Figure, 1969) is a free-standing sculpture made from artistic elements including two tree trunks, a pumpkin, several forks and a model of a head, which together form a hybrid personage. As the artist would say, it is an invented figure that is taken directly from reality. With these simple elements, Miró builds an evocative image which introduces us to his personal universe of symbols, in which the marvellous upper portion of the work, implying arrow shapes emerging from the head, is a direct reference to the hair and birds in his paintings from the same period, such as Femme, oiseau, étoile (Homenatge a Pablo Picasso) (Woman, Bird, Star [Homage to Picasso]) that forms part of the Museum’s collection. The concept of monumentality is present in this sculpture, which is reminiscent of a woman seated on the ground that seems to be touching the stars, and, to remove any doubt, on the back of the piece a star sign is included.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio