Danseuse espagnole I (Spanish Dancer I)

Natural heirs to the spirit of Dada, some of the “women” in Joan Miró’s 1928 series of Spanish dancers were written about by Paul Éluard, and collected by André Breton. The Catalan artist completed the dancers within the context of his “assassinat de la peinture” (murder of painting) period, and they defy any traditional art classification since they cannot be considered, in a strict sense, either painting, or sculpture, or drawing, or collage because they are more like constructions steeped in a desire to transgress, a refined eroticism and a sense of humour.
The Museo Reina Sofía’s Danseuse espagnole I (Spanish Dancer I) is one of several pieces with the same title done by Miró in the same year, which represent the first time he incorporated objects into the picture. The composition is conceived as a fun but subtle riddle, in which the viewer has to “guess” the figure suggested on the flat plane. This was where Miró began to become more interested in the object in itself, and this would lead to the creation of his famous Surrealist sculptures dating from the early 1930s, which were often assemblages of objets trouvés.

Paloma Esteban Leal