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Painting (Figures with Stars)

Five stick-like figures in black and white with orange highlights float against a colorful background, four stars in the left corner.
© 2018 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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  • Five stick-like figures in black and white with orange highlights float against a colorful background, four stars in the left corner.

Date:

1933

Artist:

Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893–1983

About this artwork

The “personages” we see here—organic figures with tiny heads, disjointed appendages, and schematic breasts—reflect the experimentation across media for which Joan Miró is best known. First in his Barcelona studio in 1933, the artist made a series of small paper collages from precisely rendered engravings of household and mechanical objects. Then, he translated these compositions into large abstract paintings, with multicolored, amorphous forms rendered in silhouette. Inspired by this series, Miró derived Paintings (Figures with Stars) as a cartoon, or full-scale preparatory work, for a tapestry commissioned by French art collector and gallery director Marie Cuttoli, effecting yet another material transformation of his original design from collage to painting to textile.

Status

On View, Gallery 398

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Joan Miró

Title

Painting (Figures with Stars)

Place

Spain (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1933

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed on verso, c.: "Joan Miró"

Dimensions

198.1 × 246.4 cm (78 × 97 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice E. Culberg

Reference Number

1952.512

Copyright

© 2018 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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