Torse

Materials

Bronze; 189.2 x 133.2 cm

Dating

1969

About the artwork

edition 4/6

Joan Miró is mostly known as a painter, but during the 1930s he started to create sculptures and freestanding objects. Nevertheless, the larger part of his sculptural oeuvre originated from 1960 to 1983. Miró’s interest in sculpture can be explained in regard to an exercise, which he had been assigned to by his tutor, Francesco Galí, while being a student at the Escola d´Art, Barcelona: the young artist had to feel the shape of different objects blindfolded and then had to put them down on paper, thereby learning to ‘see’ the shape. While his early sculptures had mostly been composed of found objects, his later works were often big, anthropomorphic bronze figures, which were inspired by found objects.
The sculpture shown here, ‘Torse’, which represents a female torso, belongs also to Miró’s late works. The figure with its voluptuous curves, elegant hollows and fine indentations is modelled on a 10 centimetre high figurine, named ‘Torse de Femme’, which the artist had created in 1966. The only difference between the two, apart from the dimensions, is an additional indentation on the small model: the circle with a central point, which represents an eye in Miró’s sign language, is missing on the big ‘Torse’ sculpture.
The oval, slit-like indentation, which symbolises the female genitals, clearly identifies the sculpture as female. Throughout his creative period, the artist developed several mysterious signs, which reappear in his works and act as replacements and symbols. Miró’s cryptic visual language is reminiscent of African and oceanic cultures and their appreciation of art. Jacques Dupin, a French art critic who also wrote Miró’s biography, commented on these signs as follows: “After establishing his volumes and assembling his objects, it sometimes occurs that the sculptor, to rid himself of them, must still trace a graphic sign that will complete the work and particularize it, must still inscribe signs of recognition. The signs Miró traces or scratches or cuts on the slab of the mass of wax more often than not possess a rough, primitive simplicity. The absence of colour, their isolation and the depth of their grooves gives them a graver, more insistent accent. The indication of the female sex, for instance, achieves in his large sculptures the superlative solemnity of a ritual celebration.”

About the artist

After he had dropped out of high school because of bad grades, the Spanish artist started a commercial apprenticeship at the request of his father. But already during his apprenticeship, Miró attended classes at the ‘La Llotja’ art academy in Barcelona, because his professional career did not satisfy him. Shortly after, he suffered a nervous breakdown at work and therefore quit his job as a commercial clerk.
The family moved to a farm in Mont-roig del Camp so that Miró could recover properly. His father’s resistance to an artistic education dwindled and Miró was allowed to attend Francesc Galí’s private art school ‘Escola d’Art’. Galí considered his student to be highly gifted and introduced him to the modern French genres and to Antoni Gaudí’s architecture.
Over the years, Miró created an abundance of poetic pictorial symbols with a suggestive power of form and colour. Based on Catalan folklore and influenced by Cubism and Surrealism, the artist completed a vast number of works. Besides his paintings, Miró also produced sculptures, statuary arts, ceramics, printed graphics and oversized theatre puppets. His extensive oeuvre consists of over 2000 oil paintings, 500 sculptures, 400 ceramics and 5000 collages and drawings. His graphic output includes over 3500 works, mostly lithographs and etchings, which were printed in small runs.