1933

Painting

Spanish, 1893 - 1983

Like many of his fellow Surrealists, Joan Miró utilized an eclectic mix of unorthodox strategies as fuel for his creative process. This painting, in spite of its large scale and nature-derived shapes, was based on a collage that the artist made by piecing together printed illustrations of mechanical goods, including drainpipes, propellers, and umbrellas. Eighteen such pairs of paintings and collages exist, and together point to an unlikely connection between the mass-produced and the hand-made. But seen alone, apart from its original source, the final canvas remains that much more mysterious.