Femme III 1965

Joan Miró created this painting, Femme III, with bold strokes of black, red, green, and yellow, against a light background. I imagine Miró standing before the canvas, brush in hand, lost in thought, trying to conjure a feeling. He wants to build a form out of color and gesture. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, like watercolor, allowing the texture of the surface to peek through. Then, suddenly, he makes an emphatic, almost violent mark and *voila*, the head appears. The dark lines loop around as if to cage or contain the energy of the image, while the red hat injects a playful note, an invitation to the circus! The more I look at this ‘Femme,’ the more I see echoes of other artists, like Paul Klee, or even some of Picasso's more whimsical portraits. It’s clear that these artists were all in conversation, exchanging ideas, inspiring one another to explore new ways of seeing.