Widely considered one of the leading Surrealists (though he was never officially part of the group), Joan Miró was also a pioneer of automatism: a method of spontaneous drawing that attempted to express the inner workings of the human psyche. Miró used color and form in a symbolic manner, developing intricate compositions and a wandering linear style that combined abstract elements with recurring motifs such as birds, eyes, and the moon. During his lifetime, Miró received the Grand Prize for Graphic Work at the 1954 Venice Biennale, exhibited at the first Documenta exhibition in 1955, and enjoyed multiple high-profile retrospectives. Today, Miró’s work—which has sold for eight figures at auction—can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions. His public sculptures and murals are installed in cities around the world, including Milan, Paris, and Barcelona.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures associated with Surrealism, though he maintained an independent spirit that shaped a uniquely poetic visual language. A pioneer of automatism - spontaneous drawing meant to access the subconscious - Miró developed symbolic compositions filled with stars, birds, eyes, and fluid linear forms that merged abstraction with dream imagery. Working across painting, sculpture, and a distinguished printmaking career with master printers such as Mourlot and Maeght, he pursued a liberated approach to color, rhythm, and line that he described as an effort to “assassinate painting,” meaning to move beyond conventional limits.
His achievements included the Grand Prize for Graphic Work at the 1954 Venice Biennale and participation in the first Documenta in 1955, followed by major retrospectives. Today Miró’s work, held in major museums worldwide, continues to embody a uniquely playful yet profound vision that defined 20th-century modernism, and his wartime Constellations series stands as a defining example of this vision, revealing how he transformed inner imagination into intricate celestial worlds filled with poetic, cosmic symbolism.
Constellation
Miró created the Constellations in 1940–41 during the turmoil of World War II, working on them as he moved between France and Spain, often in conditions of uncertainty and scarcity. He began the series in the French countryside, where isolation and the threat of advancing conflict forced him to work with the only materials he could carry small sheets of paper, gouache, and ink. After escaping France, he continued the series in Spain, developing the same intimate scale and celestial language while living under political tension and personal displacement.
Across these twenty-two works he transformed fear into luminous, intricate worlds, an embodiment of Surrealism’s belief in the inner universe when the outer world collapses. When the series later reached New York, André Breton, the French poet and founder of Surrealism, helped safeguard the works and used his influence to bring them safely to America, arranged for their first exhibition, and provided the literary interpretation that shaped how the world received them. Today the Constellations stand as one of the greatest artist–writer portfolios of the 20th century, uniting Miró’s visionary imagery with Breton’s Surrealist voice.
FIRST EDITION. Complete with 22 pochoir reproductions after gouaches by the artist on Arches wove paper, with the title page, text in French by André Breton, table of contents, and justification signed by the artist in blue ink and the author in red ink. Complete with 2 original lithographs (sheet size 17 ½ x 14", image: 12 x 9 3/4"), hand-numbered and signed by Miró in pencil at lower margin, each framed. The pochoirs are laid into their original paper folders, all in the original illustrated portfolio housed in its beige linen box, illustrated in black by Miró on front cover and spine; box has been repaired. First edition of this luxurious publication. No. 109 of 150 copies which include the 2 signed and numbered lithographs (the total edition was 384). Miró began the series of gouaches reproduced in Constellations on September 21, 1940 in Varengeuville, Normandy, where he was exiled from Francoist Spain. He created ten of the gouaches before the invasion of France by German troops pushed him to flee the country with his wife and daughter. He completed the twenty-third and final gouache of the series on September 12, 1941. The village where he stayed was subject to a blackout, and that fact prompted Miro's most luminous and affecting series of paintings, the Constellations. Miró was originally in discussions with MoMA to exhibit Constellations, but it was ultimately with the New York gallery owner Pierre Matisse that the complete series of 22 gouaches would be exhibited (Miró having wished to keep the twenty-third) in early 1945. It was not until 1959 when Matisse decided to publish reproductions. André Breton had been inspired by the series and wrote poems to accompany each work of art. Of the 384 copies produced, only the first 150 included the 2 additional signed and numbered lithographs. In his preface to this edition Breton emphasized the historical significance. With the background of war and the occupation of France, these works symbolized the triumphal "resistance" of art and the spirit of man in the face of the menace. They became the first new works from Europe to be exhibited in America following the ending of hostilities. The 22 works are arranged in the chronological order of their creation, thus respecting one of the instructions given by the artist at the time of the New York exhibition. This arrangement was so important to Miró that, as early as 1957, he insisted that each one indicate the date and place it was created. This information is reproduced on the back of the gouaches with a facsimile drawing.
