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Lot Essay
As early as the 1930s Miró was employing more elaborate and poetic titles for his paintings. Roland Penrose has observed that 'he intended to intensify the lyrical atmosphere, or subtly extend the dimensions of the work' (R. Penrose, Miró, Thames and Hudson, 1970, p. 180). Such titles are more than simply labels: they express, for Miró, as the artist stated, an 'exact reality' (in Je travaille comme un jardinier, XXe Siècle, vol. X, no. 1, 1959, p. 43). In the present Poète écrivant un poème dicté par l'oiseau de passage, the title immediately suggests to the viewer the important, highly self-referential nature of the work, in its conflagration of painting
For Miró, himself an accomplished poet and illustrator of verse, painting and poetry were not independent and unrelated forms of expression; they were, rather, twin processes, inseparably wrapped up with one another. Miró declared, 'I make no distinction between painting and poetry...Poetry and painting are done in the same way you make love; it's an exchange of blood, a total embrace -- without caution, without any thought of protecting yourself.' (quoted in M. Rowell, ed., Joan Miró, Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, pp. 151 and 152). This abandonment, or surrendering, of the self to the creative act, Miró explained, is akin to falling into a trance. In 1970 he wrote 'I work more and more in a state of trance, I would say almost always in a trance these days.' (ibid., p. 279). This is a state of mind which not only has resonance for other artists but also bears similarities to creative mechanism of many Surrealist poets, who worked under the effects of hallucination or whilst intoxicated.
The present work draws us, then, into this strange and dreamlike moment, capturing the elusive act of the poet as he writes and, by association, of the artist as he paints. The presence of the L'oiseau de passage, who appears to dictate the poem, acts as a visiting muse for the poet; its coming marks the arrival of the state of inspiration for the poet/artist. The depth, intensity and variety of the creative process comes through in the drops and splashes of colour and in the thin black lines, which hint at letters taking shape. The red pear-drop acts as a sharper focal point, suggesting the brightness and intensity of inspiration. These forms generate the overall effect of a graffiti-like message, which combines elements of the written word and the visual image to achieve a spontaneous and revelatory fusion of the poet and the painter.
For Miró, himself an accomplished poet and illustrator of verse, painting and poetry were not independent and unrelated forms of expression; they were, rather, twin processes, inseparably wrapped up with one another. Miró declared, 'I make no distinction between painting and poetry...Poetry and painting are done in the same way you make love; it's an exchange of blood, a total embrace -- without caution, without any thought of protecting yourself.' (quoted in M. Rowell, ed., Joan Miró, Selected Writings and Interviews, London, 1987, pp. 151 and 152). This abandonment, or surrendering, of the self to the creative act, Miró explained, is akin to falling into a trance. In 1970 he wrote 'I work more and more in a state of trance, I would say almost always in a trance these days.' (ibid., p. 279). This is a state of mind which not only has resonance for other artists but also bears similarities to creative mechanism of many Surrealist poets, who worked under the effects of hallucination or whilst intoxicated.
The present work draws us, then, into this strange and dreamlike moment, capturing the elusive act of the poet as he writes and, by association, of the artist as he paints. The presence of the L'oiseau de passage, who appears to dictate the poem, acts as a visiting muse for the poet; its coming marks the arrival of the state of inspiration for the poet/artist. The depth, intensity and variety of the creative process comes through in the drops and splashes of colour and in the thin black lines, which hint at letters taking shape. The red pear-drop acts as a sharper focal point, suggesting the brightness and intensity of inspiration. These forms generate the overall effect of a graffiti-like message, which combines elements of the written word and the visual image to achieve a spontaneous and revelatory fusion of the poet and the painter.