Joan MIro: Mural, March 20, 1961

 

Harvard Art Museum - oil on canvas - 45x144"

Gallery Text

In this late work, Miró’s signature whimsical imagery takes on the grand dimensions of mural painting. Featuring a frieze of curving biomorphic forms spread across an earth-colored background, Mural, March 20, 1961 recalls the surrealist artist’s earlier experiments with automatism, the notion of letting the unconscious take over the production of art. While the painting’s horizontality and organic forms suggest a landscape, the work represents the alien space of the imagination rather than a specific place. Originally displayed in the home of Josep Lluís Sert, an architect who served as dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design from 1953 to 1969, the painting represents the two men’s longstanding friendship, grounded in their shared Catalan heritage. The mural, ideally suited for Sert’s modernist home, was a gift in return for Sert’s work designing Miró’s studio in Mallorca, Spain, in 1955.

Here's the Sert created, along with a background of their friendship