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A painting on a mottled light brown background with black, red, blue and yellow shapes.

The painting features black discs and triangles placed variously across the entire canvas. Placed off-center at the bottom are black and red rectangular forms. Above, slightly off-center, is an arched shape with black, blue, and yellow rectangles are irregularly placed along the length. In the upper right, an irregular large black disc, intersected by a blue and red rectangle. Delicate black lines circle and loop across the entire canvas some highlighted with black triangles and black and red rectangles.

Gallery Text

In this late work, Miró’s signature whimsical imagery takes on the grand dimensions of mural painting. Featuring a frieze of curving biomorphic forms spread across an earth-colored background, Mural, March 20, 1961 recalls the surrealist artist’s earlier experiments with automatism, the notion of letting the unconscious take over the production of art. While the painting’s horizontality and organic forms suggest a landscape, the work represents the alien space of the imagination rather than a specific place. Originally displayed in the home of Josep Lluís Sert, an architect who served as dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design from 1953 to 1969, the painting represents the two men’s longstanding friendship, grounded in their shared Catalan heritage. The mural, ideally suited for Sert’s modernist home, was a gift in return for Sert’s work designing Miró’s studio in Mallorca, Spain, in 1955.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1964.54
People
Joan Miró, Spanish (Barcelona, Spain 1893 - 1983 Palma de Mallorca, Spain)
Title
Mural, March 20, 1961
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1961
Culture
Spanish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228381

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1200, Modern and Contemporary Art, Mid–century Abstraction I
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
114.3 x 365.8 cm (45 x 144 in.)
framed: 115.9 x 367 x 3.2 cm (45 5/8 x 144 1/2 x 1 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r. initialed: M
  • inscription: l.r. initialed: M

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Joan Miró, 1961, to; Mr. and Mrs. Josep Lluis Sert, Cambridge, Massachusetts, gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1964.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Josep Lluís Sert
Copyright
© Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Accession Year
1964
Object Number
1964.54
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Jacques Dupin, Miro, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1961), p. 574, fig. 972, ill.
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, p. 72-73, fig. 67, color ill.

Exhibition History

  • Josep Lluís Sert: Architect to the Arts II, Sert Gallery, Cambridge, 09/13/2003 - 12/14/2003
  • 32Q: 1200 Mid-Century Abstraction I (Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 04/07/2025; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu