Blue abstract art painting: Joan Miro
Joan Miro´s Etoile Bleu abstract painting will be auctioned in a couple of weeks. It seems it will mark a new Joan Miro´s price record for one of his abstract art paintings. (update: it actually did)
Why, how and when Joan Miró used the blue color?. What other abstract art artists have used it too?. What does blue color mean?
From 1925 to 1927 Joan Miró painted about 100 paintings know as “Dream Paintings”. These astonishing abstract paintings, so loved by the surrealists of that time, are charectirized by monochrome backgrounds populated by a few forms not always recognizible. Joan Miró painted from the hallucinations caused by not eating or eating not that much. He said “hallucinations substituted the exterior model. I painted like if I was dreaming, absolutelly free. My paintings from that period and mainly those with blue background, are the most empty ones I have ever painted”.
One of my prefs is Bleu II (I wrote a post about it just after seeing it for the first time). It was painted almost 40 yrs after the “Dream paintings” period. If you want to see it, you have to visit Le Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Take your time. Carefully watch the above abstract paintings. What do you think? It seems that sculptor Michel Leires compared the gradual simplification of details with the emptying of Eastern meditation practices that lead to the contemplation of the void. Do you agree with this?
What I like the most of these Joan Miro´s abstract paintings is their simplification, depht, the power of less is more, and his free attitude toward painting, which as you all know is not that easy to achieve.
The below image is the cover of a Joan Miró book I recommend to get a quick understanding and vision of Joan Miro´s art. Easy to read, and always good to have for a fast consultation.
Joan Miro: 1893-1983 (Basic Art)
The following pictures are examples of nonabstract and abstract art paintings whose main color is blue. Enjoy them and join the conversation at the end of this post.
Picasso was master using blue color. Take a look at the background of this painting and forget the figure. It sorrounds you, doesn´t it? Picasso also mastered black and white paintings. See great examples in this five star book about him.
What about this spectacular and enigmatic Robert Motherwell´s blue painting? Simple, powerful, meaningless or meaningful? Easy to see, but not that easy to make.
And the above Barnett Newsman´s or the below Brice Marden´s? How powerful and deep can a simple straight light blue line (called zip by Newman) be!! And a circular one like the ones Marden masters?
Did you know that after 20 years of exploring the possibilities color, Brice Marden considered giving up painting altogether, untill an Asian calligraphy exhibition changed everything?
Brice Marden: Work of the 1990s : Paintings, Drawings, and Prints
Learn more about american Brice Marden´s abstract art either reading the above book (click on the image to know more) or this Marden´s retrospective one
Mark Rothko used blue color in many of his abstract paintings. Many!!!. He mastered the way of getting attractive, vivid and different blue tones.
I want to finish this post sharing some of the attributes of Blue color: Infinite, communication, depht, calm, espiritual world, for the budists it´s the color of void, the color of spiritual awakening, tenderness, security, potentiates intelectual activities, lightweight feeling, stimulates persnality, parsimony, sanity…..
What else would you add about Joan Miro´s blue abstract paintings?. What other attributes does Blue color has for you?. What other abstract artists have strikingly used the Blue color? Add your comments below. If willing to, spread the word by sharing this article with your contacts. Thanks
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June 10, 2012 - 8:44 pm
Is it too obvious to mention Yves Klein and his famous IKB (International Klein Blue)? Also Rodchenko’s Pure Blue Colour (as well as the yellow and the red, three monochromes signalling the end of painting)?
June 10, 2012 - 10:11 pm
Hello Andy, I really appreciate your interesting coment in this blog. Thanks a lot for doing so. I did not know Rodchenko´s. I will check.
Best Regards
Antonio
June 12, 2012 - 4:56 pm
Blue Meanies…The first thing to come to my mind as I thought of a comment to post
Your readers with, i imagine, be interested in this Radiolab program focused on color…
http://www.radiolab.org/2012/may/21/
The last segment is focused on the color blue and how we came to ‘see’ it! The whole program is very enlightening, but the segment on the color blue just knocked me for a loop!
I like to think of myself as a colorist, but I haven’t given much though to how to communicate to others with language, what individual colors mean to me. I’ll have to get to work on that. I suspect it will be beneficial.
June 12, 2012 - 5:53 pm
Hello Ross, just want to thank you A LOT for your comment. It really adds value to this posts and enlarges the potential conversation about colors in general and Blue color in particular. Yasoypintor readers will positvely enjoy the link (as I have). Thanks for sharing.
Antonio
ps: ….. by the way, I´m from Barcelona. I have tried to find the translation for Blue Meanies … There are many of them … Please help
June 20, 2012 - 7:17 pm
The Beatles animated “Yellow Submarine” (around 1968). Rent or buy the DVD! It’s loads of fun! The Blue Meanies took over ‘Pepperland’ and took all the life giving color out of it! The Beatles were recruited to save Pepperland and return the life giving color.
June 21, 2012 - 5:46 am
Thanks for clarifying Ross.
Rgds.
Antonio Basso
June 17, 2012 - 11:08 am
A friend of mine explained me something about colors and their relation with a different parts of the body and their meaning. Basically the colour blue is the fifth chakra in a list of seven. It belongs to the area of the neck and the throat, and it’s where we find the creativity and intuition.Perhaps it could explain why Miró and other artist work so well with blue and why it fits so good in the world of the artist’s thoughts
June 17, 2012 - 8:23 pm
Hello Xavier. Thanks for adding additional valuable information to this post. As you say, this info may explain whay some artist such as Joan Miró work so well with Blue color. I´m planning to add additional posts regarding Colors and abstract art artists. Stay tunned and hope you keep adding your oppinion.
Regards.
Antonio Basso
June 20, 2012 - 7:00 pm
Predictions were right. Joan Miro´s Etoile Bleu painting marked a new price record. See it on http://www.artnet.com/PDB/PublicLotDetails.aspx?lot_id=84B675907C1E12CEC3653593A1E2E00B&page=1
June 21, 2012 - 7:41 pm
I found the complete Yellow Submarine on YouTube…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncDgeJLswY
June 25, 2012 - 8:21 am
Thanks for helping Ross,
Great finding :).
Best Regards
Antonio
December 31, 2012 - 10:47 am
[…] share with you. The first, and another of the most visited and shared yasoypintor´s articles, was Joan Miro´s abstract painting price record. Joan Miro´s Etoile […]
February 3, 2013 - 10:18 am
Blau emblematic (Emblematic Blue 1971). Although not generally known to use blue in his work, the late great Antoni Tapies, uses the abstract and a deep blue as an infinite background. And links nicely to the first Miro with it’s textures rather than a flat surface. Returning to Tapies I’d like to share my first attempt at abstract art back in 2010, I think it’s fairly clear where my influence came from:D…”It never leads to answers (after Strangeland)…
February 5, 2013 - 11:04 pm
It is very interesting……reminds me metaphorically of writings scrolled into a waterfall
February 6, 2013 - 8:24 pm
Thank you Kip..
February 3, 2013 - 11:56 pm
[…] And what about Joan Miro´s studio. It can be visited at his Palma de Mallorca fundation. Once in, you still feel him working on any of his abstract paintings. What surprised me was that none of the paintings exhibited there were signed … simple artwork in process. To read more about Joan Miró art check this article talking about his most valuable abstract painting […]
February 4, 2013 - 12:02 am
[…] I finally enjoyed three unique abstract paintings in the history of abstract art history. They are the “three blues” of the great abstract surrealism painter Joan Miró. Check also this article to exclusively see Miro´s most valuable abstract painting. […]
February 4, 2013 - 12:44 am
[…] The painting above is a Picasso figurative painting. Focus your sight on the background. Forget the figure. To me this is a good “classical” example of what I mean. If you do what I said, the background painting becomes abstract and you just see color (different blue tones), shape (apparent straight lines), space (an imaginery tridimensional one), and emotions (sadness?). Check this article to see great examples of blue abstract art painting. […]
February 5, 2013 - 11:05 pm
Since I saw your blog on Miro’ I thought you may be interested to see a chair I recently finished for auction in Chandler, AZ at VISION Gallery March 15, 2013. The chair was done based upon the work of the surrealist Miro after I designed several chairs for a children’s library project.
February 7, 2013 - 4:58 pm
Thanks for adding your comments Kip. Take Care
February 6, 2013 - 1:50 am
[…] Miro´s imaginary, his fresh style, the way he interpreted art in a so personal manner, as well as how he integrated blue color, was maravellous. Who wouldn´t want to own this book?. By the way, did you know that Joan Miro 2012 art auctions […]
February 10, 2013 - 8:43 pm
[…] If you like Joan Miró paintings, you will then also enjoy the following article talking about his master use of blue color […]
March 4, 2013 - 4:20 pm
[…] A dream that attracts our curiosity and make us believe that this fantastic world as possible. Miró was a master using blue color, and this painting, along with the other two that made the trio Bleu I, II and III, are a clear […]