Femme encerclées par le vol d'un oiseau - Pl. XVI from "Constellations" suite (after Miro)

Joan Miro

"Femme encerclées par le vol d'un oiseau - Pl. XVI from 'Constellations' suite", after the 1941 gouache by Joan Miro is a color stencil, a pochoir, done in 1958, published in 1959 in the portfolio of 22 images by Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, this being plate 16. The image and paper measures 17 x 14 inches. This impression is lithographically signed and titled on the verso: "Joan Miro / Femme encerlees par le vol d'un oiseau/ Palma de majorque / 26/IV/1941". This impression was printed under the supervision of the artist by Master Printer Daniel Jacomet on ivory velin d'Arches.

The 350 portfolios were published in five groups (numbered 1 to 10; 11 to 50; 51 to 100; 101 to 150; and 151 to 350); each group included a selection of etchings and/or lithographs to accompany the pochoirs. References for this image include Cramer 58; Musee d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1974, cat. 436, p. 111. The gallery inventory number for this color pochoir is IVHL102.

This surreal color pochoir after Joan Miro (1893-1983) is available from the gallery for $5,000.00. Contact the gallery with any condition or other questions. Shipping costs will be discussed. California residents will have sales tax added. Out of state residents may be responsible for use tax, depending on state law.

Quoted from Denis Bloch Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA (denisbloch.com) 'Miro left Paris in 1939 for Varengeville-sur-Mer in Normandy, and it was here an important new body of work was formed – a series of twenty-three gouaches, which became known as the Constellations. They are amongst the artist's most intricately constructed works, exploring ideas linked to regenerative processes located within nature.

Heavily influenced by the turmoil of World War II, his work seems to reflect upon the fragile, transitory quality of existence. Each Constellation piece depicts a moment in time, a microcosm of life: captured in weightless, suspended animation. In 1945, the Constellations were smuggled out of Europe for a Pierre Matisse exhibit in NYC.

In 1959, under the direction of pochoir master Daniel Jacomet, 22 of the original 23 gouache Constellations were made into 350 pochoir suites. Andre Breton was immediately inspired by the series and wrote accompanying poems – what would become his final poetic works. Breton is most known for co-founding Surrealism and writing the Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 in which he defines the movement as 'pure psychic automatism."'

Looking back on the period in 1948, Miró told an interviewer that in France in 1939 "a new stage in my work began which had its source in music and nature. It was about the time that the war broke out. I felt a deep desire to escape. I closed myself within myself purposely. The night, music, and the stars began to play a major role in suggesting my paintings."

"Femme encerclées par le vol d'un oiseau" translates to English as "Woman Surrounded by the Flight of a Bird" was done as a gouache, one of 22, in 1941 and redone as pochoirs in 1958/59 with prose poems by Breton. This image has text lithographed on the verso: "Joan Miro / Femmes encerlclées par le vol d'un oiseau / Zalma de majorique/ 26/IV/1941"