Joan MIRÓ (1893-1983). - Lot 144

Joan MIRÓ (1893-1983). Composition - 3/XII/71 - drawing for a balcony railing made for the Paris apartment of Monsieur and Madame Aimé Maeght. India ink, collage of colored papers, graphite and white paint, on a large roll of laid paper. Dated upper right, with annotations of numbered circles in graphite, and inscription "Cercles n°1 à 5 couleurs gravées et imprimées sur le verso". H_86 cm W_411 cm A certificate of authenticity from ADOM (Association pour la défense de l'œuvre de Joan Miró - Successió Miró) dated February 19, 2026 will be given to the buyer. Provenance: former collection of Edmond Vernassa (1926-2010), a visual artist from the Ecole de Nice and industrialist from Nice (renowned for his plastics workshop specializing in the manufacture of Plexiglas under the name "Plexi Azur"). Our three recovered drawings by Joan Miró were kept in the artist's studio, among his personal works and projects. Vernassa met Miró in the early 1970s, in the company of the Maeght couple, for whom he worked and drew regularly. This important project was carried out for the interior balcony railing of Mr. and Mrs. Aimé Maeght's apartment on avenue Elisée Reclus, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The Maeght couple commissioned the work from Joan Miró and had it made in Plexiglas by Edmond Vernassa. This provenance has been confirmed by Madame Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, co-author of the Catalogues Raisonnés des peintures et dessins de Joan Miró and member of the ADOM committee. We have several photographs of Edmond Vernassa, with Joan Miró, Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, in his Plexi Azur studio. Here we see Miró seated, busy drawing, under Vernassa's admiring eye. We still have many photographs of the Maeght couple with Vernassa, notably at the opening of the Vernassa exhibition at Jean Ferrero's Place Ile de Beauté in Nice in 1974. Note: Joan Miró regularly visits Monsieur and Madame Aimé Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Maeght Foundation sometimes referred to as "Miró's home" in France. He accompanied the couple in their lives and ambitious projects, frequenting their circle - which included Edmond Vernassa. Our monumental frescoes at 3/XII/71 were initially models, hung in Vernassa's studio, as the thumbtack holes visible around the perimeter tell us, so that he could supervise their production in Plexiglas for the Maeghts. These frescoes are two more emblematic works of Mirón's essence: expressionist influence and a fascination with Japanese calligraphy. The artist traveled to Japan in 1966 and again in 1970, creating an earthenware mural with Josep Artigas for the 1970 Osaka International Exhibition. That same year, he declared: "I was fascinated by the work of Japanese calligraphers, and it definitely influenced my working methods. I work more and more in a trance state, I'd say almost always in a trance these days. And I consider my work more and more gestural. The two mixed techniques in 3/XII/71 are full of energy and gestural freedom, where the brush dominates and runs across a panoramic white background, with a few counterpoints of color provided by the collages. In particular, the brush runs for more than three meters in a horizontal line, like a thread for the unity of the signs the artist has traced on the work. We can see this project as a calligraphic exercise, testimony to the discovery of Japan, associated with several recurring motifs from Miró's pictorial language and a few symbols from his imagination. "For me, conquering my freedom means conquering simplicity. In the end, a line and a color are enough to make a painting". The freedom of the material - for its part - is hindered by the artist in these drawings from 1971, and we can see several ink flows deliberately masked with white paint. Miró often plays with drips and randomness, sometimes during contemplative pauses, but here he chooses to mask them to achieve a masterful, restrained final project. These two important drawings from 3/XII/71 reflect the purification of elements that characterized many of Joan Miró's late-period creations, and a reduction of motif that would reach its apogee in 1973 with works such as La Danse du Coquelicot (preserved at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), where the line of ink and dots of bright color tell the story of Miró's reduction to the essential of poetry. Miró created two intimate works for his visionary friends and patrons Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, which, beyond their primary function, are a source of inspiration for the artist.