Les Forestiers 1958

Joan Miró made *Les Forestiers* with etching and aquatint, which lets you get these great textures. It's like he's conjuring up a whole world with just a few lines and shapes. I love the way Miró uses these earthy tones for what seem like the structures in the painting, you can almost feel the grit of the material he's using, especially in those central horizontal lines, they feel like they've been built up with layer upon layer of texture. But then, against that, he throws in these pops of color – little bursts of red, green, yellow – like tiny fireworks going off. The stark black lines make me think of Paul Klee, but Miró’s touch is all his own. The black star in the lower right, with its solid form and sharp points, anchors the whole composition, its shape is like a little echo of the cosmos, reminding me that art isn't just about what we see, but also about how we imagine.