Details
Joan Miró (1893-1983)

Homme et Femme dans la Nuit

both marked on one leg Miró and numbered and stamped at the bottom N4 Clementi Fondeur, painted bronze
30¾in. and 34¼in. (78cm. and 87cm.) high

Conceived in 1969 and cast in a numbered edition of four at a later date
Literature
A. Jouffroy and J. Teixidor, Miró, Sculptures, Paris, 1974, no. 136 (another pair illustrated p. 102)
A. Jouffroy, Miró, Paris, 1987, pp. 92-93 (another pair illustrated)

Lot Essay

Miró's interest in bronze sculpture developed relatively late in his career; his experiments with large-scale bronzes did not begin in earnest until the 1960s. In 1967-9 he created a number of sculptures painted in strong primary colours (see lot 215) composed of assemblages of objets trouvés "which have an irrationality as total objects that endows these with a strong equivocal poetic presence" (M. Rowell, Miró, New York, 1970, p. 25).

Besides being poetic, the present sculpture emphasises the human element of his objets trouvés, "Miró perpétue l'idée dire imposition de forme à l'objet réel ... Miró confond, par le bronze, l'objet réel (la caisse, la fourche, la cuiller, le tabouret, etc.) avec sa représentation ... La fourche plantée dans la caisse suggère, par leur assemblage vertical, une femme. Et les deux tabourets, dont l'un, rond, a les pieds en l'air, ne peuvent être, ne sauraient être, aux yeux de quiconque voit, perçoit, imagine et pense en termes de réalité, qu'un homme et femme dans la nuit" (Miró, Sculptures, Paris, 1973, pp. 40, 42).

Un Homme et Femme dans la Nuit goes a stage further than many of the single piece sculptures of this date. Besides humanising the forms he also creates a perfectly balanced dramatic tension between the male and female figures.

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