By Joan Miró
Located in Miami, FL
JOAN MIRÓ (1893–1983) – “L’OISEAU DU FORGERON”
Etching and Aquatint in Colors with Debossing on Arches Paper ⚜ Hand Signed and Numbered ⚜ Custom Conservation Frame
A POETIC DIALOGUE BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL MATTER AND THE LIFE OF THE BIRD
“L’Oiseau du Forgeron”, or “The Blacksmith’s Bird,” is a 1963 etching and aquatint with debossing by Joan Miró, hand signed in pencil lower right and numbered 48 from the limited edition of 75. The work belongs to Miró’s celebrated Forgeron series, in which the artist used aggressive plate biting and physical debossing of the paper to summon the world of the blacksmith’s forge directly onto the printed sheet. Printed in colors on heavy Arches wove paper with the watermark present, the impression was published by Maeght Éditeur, Paris, the central printmaking publisher of Miró’s mature career, and is documented in Jacques Dupin’s Miró Engraver, Vol. II: 1961–1973 (Daniel Lelong Éditeur, Paris, 1989) as plate 363.
The composition is built around a bold visual pairing. At its center sits a heavy gray geometric form, rendered through the combined effect of etching, aquatint, and debossing, the latter pressing the contours of the deeply etched plate physically into the paper to create a tactile, sculptural relief that mimics forged industrial iron. The form is perforated with a constellation of small circles that read as rivet holes and is edged with the irregular notches of a blacksmith’s tool...
Category
1960s Surrealist Eileen Soper Art
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint, Intaglio
