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Joan Miró 1893 - 1983 Composition, 1937 Signed Oil and gouache on paper laid on canvas 19 ¾ x 25 ½ in, 50 x 65 cm Provenance Galerie Feingen Palmer, Los Angeles Galerie Oriol, Bacelona Collection Ginkobilova, Barcelona Literature Jacques Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Catalogue Raisonné des Dessins. Tome I (1901-1937), 2008, n° 748, repr. With the outbreak of the violent Spanish civil war in 1936, Miró and his family were forced into involuntary exile in Paris for the next four years. "I find myself uprooted, and I long for my own country" wrote the artist. Feelings of discontent and tension pervade Composition and other works from this period. In 1937 Spain's Republican government commissioned Miró and his friend and compatriot Picasso to each paint a mural for the Spanish Republican Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition. Both artists used their murals to portray the violence of war; Miró painted The Reaper and Picasso Guernica. During the late 1930's Miró created a number of drawings and paintings that while not referring directly to war or rebellion, retain a dramatic tone that suggests them. This is notably apparent in the black backgrounds and removal of his earlier use of bright colour, which here has been replaced with a monochrome palette. The execution of such paintings can be understood as "exorcisms against the horrors of war" (Jacques Dupin). This work is also emblematic of Miró's desire to "assassinate painting", an aim which dominated his work throughout the 1930s. Like many of his artist friends, including Arp, Duchamp and Ernst, Miró began to replace traditional fine art methods with the use of mixed media. This work reflects both Miró's engagement with collage strategies and his growing interest in the physical, concrete qualities of his materials. He wanted to endow painting with the presence of the object and rid it of an over refinement. These experimentations with abstraction later influenced the Abstract Expressionist artists, including Jackson Pollock. Composition also marks a change in Miró's style. In the simplified, continuous, flowing lines, which reappear in his Constellation series, elegance replaces mere aggression. Miró has also painted symbols onto the surface of the work; a carefully inscribed sun and moon overlap in the bottom right hand corner, prevalent imagery which can be found in many of Miró's works, including The Escape Ladder of 1940.