Joan Miró

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (acquired from the artist)

James Johnson Sweeney, Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1970, another cast featured in an installation photograph of an exhibition at the l'Ancien Hospital de la Sainte-Croix p. 222 

Michel Tapie, Joan Miró, Milan, 1970, no. 161

Gaston Diehl, Miró, Paris, 1974, p. 77

Alain Jouffroy and Joan Teixidor, Miró Sculptures, Paris, 1973, no. 57, illustration of another cast in color p. 25

Pere Gimferrer, Miró: Colpir Sense Nafrar, Barcelona, 1978, no. 177,  illustration of another cast in color p. 177

Rosa Maria Malet, Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1983, illustration of another cast in color p. 124

Pere A. Serra, Miró i Mallorca, Barcelona, 1984, no. 208, iIlustration of another cast in color p. 158

Fundació Joan Miró, Obra de Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1988, no. 1470, illustration of another cast in color p. 398  

Barbara Catoir, Miró on Mallorca, Munich & New York, 1995, illustration of another cast in color p. 22

Emilio Fernandez Miró and Pilar Ortega Chapel, Joan Miró, Sculptures, Catalogue Raisonné, 2006, no. 106, illustration of another cast in color p. 119

Overall the sculpture is in very good condition. The high gloss paint is in very good condition and displays excellent color retention. Minor black scuffs were observed on the red painted soccer ball that sits upon the black box. Lifting white paint was found inside the box where the paint had previously concealed a black drip of paint. Minor paint losses were also observed on the ceiling inside the box where the bottom of the pitchfork is located. A circle of discoloration was observed on top of the black box below the red soccer ball, which was caused by pooling water. The yellow pitchfork is in good condition with the exception of one small 1/2" area on the proper right side of the fork where the paint appears disturbed. The sculpture is structurally sound and in very good 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.

Although from time to time Miró had worked with three-dimensional forms, it was not until the 1960s that he began to work consistently in bronze. In 1967 and 1968 he created a number of sculptures, painted in strong primary colors and composed of assemblages of commonplace objects that "have an irrationality as total objects that endows them with a strongly equivocal, poetic presence" (M. Rowell, Miró, New York, 1970, p. 25).

 

Femme et oiseau is an assemblage of a traditional wooden pitchfork, a wooden crate, a ball and a cone, cast and painted in bright yellow, black, red and green. Miró would lay out the objects on the floor in different arrangements and sketch them until he achieved a satisfying composition. In the present work, the red ball represents femininity and fertility. The beak of the bird is represented by the green, cone-like element, and the pitchfork evokes the bird's wing or plume.

 

Jacques Dupin has written the following about this sculpture: "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" (J. Dupin, "Miró as a sculptor", in Miró in Montreal, 1986, p. 31).