Speaker A
Joan Punyet Miró: What he liked most about New York City was the activity. He said that it was like a punch in the face. He was so happy in New York City.
Explore Joan Miró's art and vision in New York City, focusing on his transformative works and creative process.
Key Takeaways
- Miró’s art reflects a deep connection to both his Catalan identity and the dynamic energy of New York City.
- His creative process involved accessing subconscious imagery through meditative states and dreamlike visions.
- Birth of the World exemplifies Miró’s radical approach and his challenge to traditional artistic norms.
- Miró’s work carries a moral and ethical message of hope and transcendence amid difficult times.
- His large-scale sculptures foster a direct, physical engagement with viewers in public spaces.
Summary
- Joan Miró was deeply inspired by the vibrant activity of New York City, describing it as electric and energizing.
- The video explores Miró's use of color and collage techniques, highlighting his early works from 1917.
- Discussion of symbolic imagery in Miró's paintings, such as animals and natural elements representing life force and identity.
- Analysis of Miró's painting 'Birth of the World,' emphasizing its radical style and dreamlike, subconscious origins.
- Miró's artistic process involved accessing a heightened state of awareness similar to meditation to tap into his subconscious.
- The video highlights Miró’s ability to capture the blurry, chaotic images seen just before sleep, reflecting his visionary style.
- Miró’s work is portrayed as having a moral and ethical purpose, aiming to communicate hope beyond the harsh realities of his time.
- The discussion includes Miró’s large biomorphic sculptures like the Moonbird, designed to engage directly with the public.
- The video features insights from Joan Punyet Miró and Anne Umland, offering expert perspectives on Miró’s art and legacy.
- The overall tone emphasizes Miró’s transcendent vision and the ongoing relevance and impact of his work.
Chapters
- 00:00Miró’s Love for New York City
- 00:41Exploring the First Gallery and Color Collage
- 01:49Symbolism and Life Force in Miró’s Work
- 02:16Choosing the Next Artwork
- 02:40Analyzing ‘Birth of the World’ Imagery
- 03:08The Eye of the Picture and Meditation
- 03:50Accessing the Subconscious and Dream States
- 05:14Radical Reception and Ethical Purpose
- 07:08Miró’s Large-Scale Sculptures and Legacy
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
He always wanted to come back. He loved New York City. It was electric. Shocking.
Speaker A
Catchy. Everything. You name it. Anne Umland: It got very quiet. Joan: I like how you got the first room, first gallery with all these paintings are just...
Speaker A
so, so profound. Purples and greens and blacks and yellows. Anne: Right, so it's sort of observed reality but then hyper reality, right?
Speaker A
Because those colors. Joan: So it's a collage. Anne: So it's a collage! Joan: A painting collage.
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Anne: Yes, exactly! So it starts as early as 1917. Joan: The rabbit, the rooster, the pot, the red pepper, the onion and the depiction of the cloth is just something alive.
Speaker A
The life force that I'm getting from the earth to really give me this kind of great food and then make me be able to just go to Paris reinforcing my energy and my identity as a Catalan international.
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Anne: It's sort of an interior space, but then it's green like the earth, like the grass, like the fields rising up is another way that it's both a room space and a landscape space.
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Anne: You pick a picture now. What should we look at next? Joan: Well, well.
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I like this one. Anne: Oh yeah? Joan: Or should we go to Birth of the World?
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Anne: Oh. Let's look at this one! Just for a minute. Oh, shall we just?
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Joan: He was really going through a great, extraordinary metamorphosis. Going into the world of dreams, of perceptions or visions at night.
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Anne: Right. Joan: The fish is just reduced to one skeleton. The fish is sticking his red tongue out to catch a mosquito. Anne: [laughter] and then the hunter comes down to have his rabbit grilled here and then this amazing eye is watching upon everything as if he was like a god,
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a presence, a spooky eye looking upon everything, you know? Anne: What did Miró say?
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He said it's the eye of the picture that looks at us. Anne: He would talk about the things he would do to try to achieve a heightened state of awareness akin to meditation, right, just to get to that space, that place where the world drops away
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right and the imagination enters in and it's really about letting your subjective self, which we can't avoid, color your perceptions of the external world.
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Joan: Miró was able to go to the most spooky, dark, and hidden corner of his subconscious mind to cut out or to get out all the images to put them on canvases.
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Anne: How do you think he dreamed up doing a background like that, because really it doesn't exist before this.
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Joan: Absolutely, very simple. You are able to catch the moment just before you fall asleep, Anne: Uh huh.
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Joan: you have these kind of blurry images that are just chaotic and you have these kind of different lights that move around. Anne: Mhm.
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Joan: So those are the visions that Miró was catching. When you close your eyelids and you are about to fall in REM number one.
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Anne: He said, well, this red dot and the yellow line descending from it for him represented a star.
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Joan: The female sex and the penis and then here this kind of espermatozoidal figure.
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Joan: And then you have to have the courage to attack huge canvases and just do it!
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René Gaffé, the guy from Brussels, he bought it, he took it away because it was too radical.
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This painting could not be shown anyway because they would have said... Anne: ...everybody laughed at him.
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Joan: Absolutely! Anne: And they still— you know if you go on our Instagram site there are still some comments about Birth of the World that "my kid could do that." Joan: This is a real monster.
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The teeth are like Dracula about to suck your blood away and this very psychedelic, wide open monster full of tragedy and despair recalls the battlefield of seeing people being killed by shotguns.
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Anne: And didn't he always say too he thought with his art it had a moral and ethical purpose?
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Joan: Yes. Anne: And that was to communicate a vision of hope. Joan: Yes. Anne: Or of a space beyond the squalid world that people were living through at those moments.
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So it's the pessimist who yet believes in the transcendent power of the work that he's making or that's why he makes it because he wants to believe that.
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Joan: Look right here! That's the Miró sculpture. Isn't that big? It's called the Moonbird.
Speaker A
Amazing sculpture, man. So that is a very... ...special way to portray a bird, to make it very biomorphic because it could be a chameleon, it could be a bull.
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He developed these huge sizes to be able to have direct connections with the people on the streets and be part of this city where he was so happy. New York.
Speaker A
Having the chance to visit Miró is... it's a blessing. Anne: I think that's firstly the way to look at it, right?
Speaker A
We are all works in progress until it ends.
Topics:Joan MiróBirth of the WorldThe Museum of Modern ArtNew York Citymodern artcollage paintingsubconscious artbiomorphic sculptureMoonbirdart meditation
