Provenance
Max Zurier (died 1984), Palm Springs, Cal., by June 1959-at least September 1979 [Los Angeles 1959 exh. cat.; letter from Jacques Dupin to Zurier dated 12 September 1979 in Gecht collection files]. Sold by B.C. Holland, Chicago, to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Gecht, Chicago, 1987.
Accession Number
180680
Medium
Watercolor and black crayon, with touches of gouache, over graphite, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
49.5 × 64.5 cm (19 1/2 × 25 7/16 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Credit Line
Gift of the Gecht Family
Background & Context
Background Story
A watercolor and crayon drawing by Miro from 1937 depicting fantastical personages in his vocabulary of simplified forms and graphic signs, expressing the violence and anxiety of the Spanish Civil War through Surrealist fantasy and the tension between delicate washes and aggressive black lines.
Cultural Impact
Miros wartime personage drawings are key documents of the artists political engagement and of the capacity of Surrealist fantasy to express historical crisis. They influenced the development of postwar European art, particularly Art Informel and Cobra, which shared Miros commitment to expressive distortion and material experimentation.
Why It Matters
Miro 1937 watercolor and crayon drawing of fantastical personages, Surrealist response to the Spanish Civil War.
