Monday, January 6, 2014

Modern Print Monday: Joan Miro


Joan Miro for D.B. Fuller & Co, mid 1950s

Another colorway


Joan Miro
1893-1983

Modernists abstracted nature by eliminating all but the basic shapes needed to communicate "tree" or "flower." Joan Miro was one who abstracted human figures to the basics.

Joan Miro, Harlequin's Carnival, painting, 1925
detail

Surrealists looking to capture the subconscious often created a dream-like chaos peopled by frightening (or are they charming?) figures.

Detail of Woman & Birds print by Miro for Fuller

In the mid-fifties, D.B. Fuller and Company, a U.S. fabric printer, commissioned prints by well known European artists.  Known for his figural abstractions, Miro included people among the wire-like lines, and playful shapes in primary colors.

Cartoonish and unsettling


Life magazine did an article on Fuller's Modern Master series in 1955.
Click here to see it on Google Books:



4 comments:

  1. great article and thank you for leading me to a 1956 edition of Life magazine - wonderful to go through, even the ads are interesting.

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  2. I greatly enjoy your various bogs, and particularly this one on Modernism - you connect all kinds of dots which I was unaware I had picked up here and there.

    In the last couple of days I found two things which I thought might intrigue you - a London Underground map of 1914

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25551751

    and an amazing Scottish tapestry, clearly in the Bayeux tradition, but with strong modernist influences of various kinds. I bought the two books and they are wonderful.

    http://scotlandstapestry.com/index.php?s=tapestry

    Thank you for opening my eyes!

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