Personnage Gothique, Oiseau-Eclair (Gothic Personage, Bird-Flash)

model 1974, cast 1977

Joan Miró

Sculptor, Spanish, 1893 - 1983

As tall as the spindly trees behind it, a bronze, abstract, free-standing sculpture is made up of a circle set within a shallow box, which is balanced on the tip of an upside-down, thick-legged, V shape. The textured, lumpy legs taper as they move up. A sinewy rope-like texture runs, like a hem, along the outside of the pointed arch. Another form, like a lip, lines the inner edge where the legs pinch together at the top of the arch. The box balanced on the apex is nearly as wide as the legs. The box has a projecting rim, and is corrugated along the outer surfaces and the front edge, as if it had been cut down from a cardboard box. The circle centered in the box also has a projecting rim, like a tall cake pan. Within the circle, a shape like the wing of a bird appears to have been incised. A curving, bowtie-like shape protruding on a rod from the top of the box is incised with a dot at the center of another circle.
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Until his 70th birthday in 1963, Joan Miró was best known for his surrealist paintings and drawings. However, in the last two decades of his life he created more than 150 sculptures. These late works mostly fall into two categories: those cast from forms created by the artist, and those cast from found objects. One of Miró's largest sculptures, Personnage Gothique relates to both types: the bird was cast from an object the artist created, while the top portion was cast from a cardboard box and the arch-shaped form from a donkey's collar. The objects combine to suggest a figure, while at the same time the empty box and unoccupied harness imply absence. Personnage Gothique embodies Miró's lifelong concern with richly imaginative imagery that he said was "always born in a state of hallucination."
Sculpture Garden, Northwest Quadrant
On View

Sculpture Garden, Northwest Quadrant

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

  • Dimensions

    overall: 450.22 x 200.03 x 160.02 cm (177 1/4 x 78 3/4 x 63 in.)
    gross weight: 7535.000 lb
    bottom section: 262.9 x 200.7 x 137.2 cm (103 1/2 x 79 x 54 in.)
    center section: 160 x 124.5 x 62.2 cm (63 x 49 x 24 1/2 in.)
    top section: 48.9 x 55.9 x 15.9 cm (19 1/4 x 22 x 6 1/4 in.)
    gross weight (bottom section): 4300.000 lb
    gross weight (center section): 2400.000 lb
    gross weight (top section): 35 lb. (15.876 kg)

  • Accession

    1992.53.1

  • Copyright

    Copyright © 1998 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Aimé Maeght, Paris;[1] (Galerie Maeght, Paris); purchased 12 June 1992 by NGA.
[1] Apparently Aimé Maeght liked the small maquette the artist made of the work, and agreed to buy the cast numbered 2/2 of the large version Miró wanted to do. This cast was the only one completed in the artist's lifetime. (See letter of 9 October 1991 from Shane Dunworth to Jeremy Strick, in NGA curatorial files). The credit for the loan of the sculpture to exhibitions in 1979, 1981, and 1986-1987 is to Galerie Maeght, Fondation Maeght (Saint-Paul), and Mr. and Mrs. Adrien Maeght (Paris), respectively.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1979

  • Joan Miró: Peintures, Sculptures, Dessins, Céramiques 1956-1979, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France, 1979, no. 308, repro.

1981

  • Miró Milano: Pittura, Scultura, Ceramica, Disegni, Sobreteixims, Grafica, Palazzo del Senato (and other venues in Milan), 1981, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1986

  • Miró: Escultor, Centro Reina Sofia, Madrid; Fundacio Joan Miró, Barcelona; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1986-1987, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

2013

  • Cigola, Francesca. Art Parks: A Tour of America’s Sculpture Parks and Gardens. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2013: 101.

Inscriptions

lower right side: Miró / 2/2 / SUSSE FONDEUR.PARIS

Markings

FM: SUSSE FONDEUR.PARIS

Wikidata ID

Q63860917

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