Peinture (Painting)

Joan Miró

1933

On View in Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3

The Spanish artist Joan Miró was one of the most significant early proponents of Surrealism. This large painting belongs to a series of eighteen similar compositions. Based on an earlier collage of biomorphic fragments cut out from sales catalogs, the painting presents an image of abstracted forms interlocked across the surface of the canvas. The hard-edged organic shapes, rendered primarily with flat blacks and whites but also with simple primary and secondary hues, are set against an amorphous brown and green background. The painting exhibits a tension between the illusion of depth and an emphasis on flat surface effects, as Miró's amoeba-like forms appear to be in constant metamorphosis and flux. They waver between being purely formal elements and alluding to organic entities. At the same time, within the context of the early 1930s, the large, dark, and foreboding shapes that invade and subsume others might be seen as a reference to fascist violence and cruelty. [Permanent collection label, 2019]

Artist Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983)
Title Peinture (Painting)
Date 1933
Medium Oil on canvas mounted on board
Dimensions unframed | 51 15/16 x 77 5/8 in.
Credit line University purchase, Kende Sale Fund, 1945
Object number WU 3768

Technique oil painting
Work type painting
Theme Abstraction

Currently on View Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, Room 3

Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11/02/2008 - 01/12/2009

Joan Miró, 1917–1934: La Naissance du Monde (The Birth of the World)
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, 03/03/2004 - 06/28/2004

Picasso to Pollock: H.W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, Texas), 08/17/2004 - 10/24/2004

H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/30/2002 - 12/08/2002
Salander-O’Reilly Galleries (New York, New York), 03/12/2002 - 04/06/2002

Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/12/1998 - 04/05/1998

Abstract Expressionism: American Art in the 1950s and 1960s
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/1997 - 04/06/1997

A Gallery of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/09/1994 - 10/16/1994

Modernism at Midstream: From Europe to America and Back Again
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/04/1983 - 11/06/1983

Cubists, Surrealists, and Expressionists

Capsule of Modern Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/09/1983 - 03/06/1983

Miró in America
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, Texas), 04/21/1982 - 06/27/1982

The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981

Miró: Selected Paintings
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 06/27/1980 - 08/17/1980

Joán Miro: The Development of a Sign Language
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 03/19/1980 - 04/27/1980
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, 05/15/1980 - 06/18/1980

Cubist, Expressionist, and Surrealist Paintings and Sculptures

20th Century Masterworks from St. Louis Collections
Saint Louis Art Museum, 12/01/1973 - 02/03/1974

Washington University Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture from Daumier to Pollock
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 04/06/1966 - 05/08/1966

Miró in St. Louis
Saint Louis Art Museum, 10/01/1965 - 11/07/1965

Art at Washington University
Saint Louis Art Museum, 05/07/1953 - 05/31/1953

An Exhibition of Contemporary Art
Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, 04/15/1951 - 05/15/1951

H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art 2002

May 12, 1933–at least, June 22, 1933
Artist, Mont-roig del Camp and Barcelona, Spain

November 1933–October 22, 1936
Pierre Loeb (1897–1964), Paris, France, and Cuba / [Galerie Pierre (1924–1964), Paris, France]

by December 29, 1933–May 1934
[Pierre Matisse Gallery (1931–1989), New York, NY, on consignment from the above]

October 22, 1936–September 1937
Museum of Modern Art (1929–present), New York, NY, purchase from Galerie Pierre, Paris, France

September 1937–May 12, 1942
George L. K. Morris (1905–1975), New York, NY, and Lenox, MA, through exchange with the above

May 12, 1942–November 25, 1945
[Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, NY, purchase from the above]

November 25, 1945–
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, University purchase, Kende Sale Fund

Inscription [Verso:] Joan Miró 12.5.33

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