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Lot Essay
Jacques Dupin has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Miró's Danseuses is filled with energy, both in the dancing of the figures and in the deliberate gesturality of the artist's brushstrokes. Rather than allowing the cold constraints of finesse to bind him, he has created a lively and rhythmic work, the bodies of the dancers of the titles appearing like musical notes on the paper. The vivacious brushstrokes and the spattering of ink in the centre fill the work with life, with an abandon suited to the Bacchanals of the figures represented.
Although completed and dated in 1963, a photograph of Miró taken ten years earlier, by Brassai, shows that the artist was already working then on Danseuses. This is therefore a work which stands astride two different periods in the artist's life and work. By looking at the photograph, we can see that the 1953 picture involved the coloured figures being shown against a sparse background. Interestingly, none of the black appears on the picture in the 1953 image. The dark lines that he has later added create a sense of solidity to Danseuses that could not have been possible with only the translucent colours, but also a certain heaviness. Even the light, almost insubstantial central dancer has been grounded by Miró's addition of the scattered ink. This later addition of the black also implies that it was at the later stage of the picture's creation that the figure on the left was changed from a simple yet colourful dancer with the whimsical plumage atop, becoming a darker presence. The darkness dispels some of the translucence and luminosity of the 1953 state, but also fills it with chance. The scattered ink is like a black firework in the starlit sky, filling the Danseuses with zesty spontaneity. These additions show Miró actively revisiting his earlier work, reacting to his earlier art and taking the opportunity to change it. But he is not merely tampering with a legacy. Instead, his additions are clear comments, embracing and reinventing the Danseuses of a decade earlier.
Miró's Danseuses is filled with energy, both in the dancing of the figures and in the deliberate gesturality of the artist's brushstrokes. Rather than allowing the cold constraints of finesse to bind him, he has created a lively and rhythmic work, the bodies of the dancers of the titles appearing like musical notes on the paper. The vivacious brushstrokes and the spattering of ink in the centre fill the work with life, with an abandon suited to the Bacchanals of the figures represented.
Although completed and dated in 1963, a photograph of Miró taken ten years earlier, by Brassai, shows that the artist was already working then on Danseuses. This is therefore a work which stands astride two different periods in the artist's life and work. By looking at the photograph, we can see that the 1953 picture involved the coloured figures being shown against a sparse background. Interestingly, none of the black appears on the picture in the 1953 image. The dark lines that he has later added create a sense of solidity to Danseuses that could not have been possible with only the translucent colours, but also a certain heaviness. Even the light, almost insubstantial central dancer has been grounded by Miró's addition of the scattered ink. This later addition of the black also implies that it was at the later stage of the picture's creation that the figure on the left was changed from a simple yet colourful dancer with the whimsical plumage atop, becoming a darker presence. The darkness dispels some of the translucence and luminosity of the 1953 state, but also fills it with chance. The scattered ink is like a black firework in the starlit sky, filling the Danseuses with zesty spontaneity. These additions show Miró actively revisiting his earlier work, reacting to his earlier art and taking the opportunity to change it. But he is not merely tampering with a legacy. Instead, his additions are clear comments, embracing and reinventing the Danseuses of a decade earlier.