Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/169626
Joan Miró 1893 - 1983 L'Échelle de l'évasion, 1971 Signed, numbered 1/2 and stamped 'Fundició Victoria J. Parellada, Barcelona' Bronze 31 x 11 x 7 in, 81 x 29 x 18 cm 1 of 4 casts signed and justified Provenance Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York Private collection, New York Private collection, Switzerland Exhibitions 1979 Prato, Palazzo Pretorio, cat. no. 33, p. 74, repr 1980 Madrid, 'la Caixa', cat. no. 23, repr 1984 Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, cat. no. 39, p. 42 1986 Montreal, The Museum of Fine Arts, cat. no. 93, repr. p. 154 and 257 1986 Madrid, Centro Reina Sofia, cat, no. 28, repr. p. 73 1987 Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, cat. no. 28, repr. p. 73 1987 Cologne, Museum Ludwig, cat. no. 28, repr. p. 83 1993 Malmö, Konsthall, p. 176, repr. p. 177, (col.) 2001 Saint-Paul, Fondation Maeght, cat. no. 147, p. 229, repr. p. 128, (col.) 2011 London, Tate Modern, cat. no. 131, repr. p.161, (col.) Literature Emilio Fernández Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, 'Joan Miró Sculptures - Catalogue raisonné 1928-1982', Daniel Lelong – Successió Miró, Paris, 2006, no. 233 A. Jouffroy and J. Teixidor, 'Miró Sculptures', Paris 1980, no. 246, p.184 Fundació Joan Miró, 'Obra de Joan Miró', Barcelona, 1988, no. 1623, p 442 and 443 (col.) "It is in sculpture that I will create a truly phantasmagoric world of living monsters; what I do in painting is more conventional" (Joan Miró, 1941). Miró was first introduced to sculpture by the Surrealists in the 1920s, exhibiting his so called 'painting-objects' alongside artists such as Salvador Dali. Miró became attracted to sculpture due to the 'unprecedented structural and semantic possibilities that were discovered through experiments with randomness'. After these early works he left sculpture almost completely only returning to it in the 1960s. The motif of 'L'Échelle de l'évasion' ('The Ladder of Escape') was used frequently by Miró from the beginning of the 1920s and gave the title to Miró's major retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London in 2011. The image can be seen as a ladder to escape from this world into a new reality or dream-like world, often depicted through the fanciful, imaginary creatures in Miró's work. The theme was used ubiquitously throughout the late 1930s and early 40s and it can be seen as a form of escape from the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. He had escaped both, living respectively in Varengeville in Normandy before returning to Spain after the Nazis invaded Paris. Miro's return to this motif of escapism in 1971 may seem at odds with the political climate of Spain in the early 1970s; Franco was in clear decline and it was becoming possible to imagine a brighter future. By 1973 Franco had surrendered his position as prime minister to Luis Carrero Blanco, before allowing Juan Carlos to take over as acting head of state in 1974. In this light the ladder can be seen not just as a symbol for escape but also as a form of elevation. Through transforming and de-familiarising various everyday objects, a ladder, a shell, and animal ribcage, he has created a new whole, a visionary fantasy with multiple forms and interpretations.