ABOUT THE WORK

Shortly before the end of his life, Joan Miro told Alexander Calder, “I am an established painter but a young sculptor.” Despite his modesty, Miro began producing three dimensional objects after his break from the Surrealists, as early as 1928. His vision could not be entirely realized with canvas, so he experimented with collages and sculptures using found objects, which to him were not random, but some sort of message. Prevented by the disruptions of wartime in Europe, he was not able to use bronze until about 1946, but thereafter continued to explore this material until the end of his career.

Tête-a-Tête was a return to bronze after a period spent on printmaking and ceramics, notably the ceramic wall murals of the UNESCO building in Paris for which he won a Guggenheim Award. At the time it was conceived, Miro had just moved to a new studio in Son Abrines Mallorca. It was a contemplative period in which Miro reexamined his artistic conception to refine his expressive language.

Like much of Miro’s sculpture, Tête-a-Tête was composed from found objects to create an aesthetic experience through the amalgamation of imagination and the concrete world. It is a humorous commentary on relationships. Essentialized biomorphic forms contrast geometric and organic shapes to produce tension heightened by the delicate balance of their horizontal alignment. This ‘conversation’ between the two dissimilar entities is a literal, playful representation of their “head to head.” The cavity in the center of the smaller head, and the block-like shape of the lower suggest the level of discourse between the two, while the protrusion manifests wandering thoughts. 

Although Miro often painted his sculptures, in Tête-a-Tête, Miro’s palette is the patina of the bronze, made richer with the passage of time. The variated textures draw the viewer into an exploration of the surfaces and negative spaces in the work. As a work cast some twenty-five years from its conception, Tête-a-Tête represents both the vitality of new directions and the exacting execution of a mature artist. 

- Martha Chaiklin