Joan Miró

Pierre and Maria Gaetana Matisse Foundation, New York

Gerald Peters, Santa Fe (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Miró, The Last Bronze Sculptures, 1981-83 (exhibition catalogue), Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1987, no. 3, illustration of another cast in color on the cover of the catalogue

Miró: Gemälde, Plastiken, Zeichnungen und Graphik: Werke aus den Kunstsammlungen des spanischen Staates (exhibition catalogue), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1988, no. 99, illustration of another cast in color p. 130

Miró: El sueño interrumpido (exhibition catalogue), Centre Culturel Espagnol, Paris, 1988, no. 35, illustration of another cast in color

Joan Miró - a retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Helly Nahmad Gallery, London, 1999-2000, no. 49, illustration of another cast in color p. 71

Miró: mein Atelier ist mein Garten (exhibition catalogue), Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, 2000-2001, no. 70, illustration of another cast in color p. 117

Pierre Matisse and His Artists (exhibition catalogue), The Morgan Library, New York, 2002, illustration of another cast p. 292

Emilio Fernández Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, Joan Miró, Sculptures.  Catalogue raisonné, 1928-1982, Paris, 2006, no. 376, illustration of another cast in color p. 349

The bronze rests securely on a roughly hewn wooden base. The patina is a variegated brown, green and ochre. This work is in excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Tête et Oiseau is a composite of symbols which appear throughout Miró's work. Miró completed different versions of this subject in 1967 and 1972, and the present work dates from 1981. Here, the bird is a metaphor for the artist, whose eyes never leave its prey (the objects). Jacques Dupin has written about the ambiguity of these symbols in Miro's art: "What are these figures of Miró that stand before us? Difficult to identify, despite their affirmation and because of their intensity. They cannot be pinned down to categories or catalogues. Neither men nor beasts, nor monsters nor intermediate creatures, but with something of all these. Of what 'elsewhere' are they native, from what regions of the fantastic have they traveled? Their aggressive presence is a blend of the grotesque and the incongruous, of predatory fascination and the artlessness of a primitive game" (Jacques Dupin, "Miró as a sculptor," Miró in Montreal, Montreal, 1986, p. 31).

The present sculpture was executed during the artist's lifetime in a bronze edition of seven numbered casts, marked 0 through 6, and two unnumbered casts by the Parellada foundry in Barcelona. The two unnumbered nominative casts are in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and in the collection of the Government of Catalonia. Miró and the Parellada family foundry had an intense and fruitful collaboration which began in 1965 and lasted until Miró's death in 1983.