Oiseau dans l'espace (Bird in Space)

In 1959, Joan Miró referred to his fascination with immobility as an expression of the idea of infinity, remarking: "Immobility makes me think of the large spaces in which movements occur that don’t stop at a given moment, movements that have no end. It is, as Kant said, the immediate emergence of the infinite in the finite. A pebble, a finite and immobile object, suggests to me not just movement, but endless movement. These become, in my paintings, shapes similar to sparks that arise from the frame as if coming from a volcano". The set of Miró space paintings on white backgrounds conserved in the Museum – a group of works dated between 1969 and 1976 among which is Oiseau dans l’espace (Bird in Space, 1976) – represent his artistic fascination with infinite space, endless movement originating in minimal and finite elements such as a dot or a flash on the vibrant surface of the painting. Oiseau dans l’espace uses this compositional concept based on the extreme simplification that Miró first used in his first monochromatic triptych entitled Bleu (Blue, 1961), in which he took advantage of the size of the canvas; in Oiseau dans l’espace he achieves the feeling of infinite space by using an extreme simplification of the pictorial elements. The bird in space is only suggested by a smooth intermittent linear sequence on a dense and rich white background, managing to convey the feeling of sublime space and inhabited emptiness.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio