Personnages 1937

Here's Miró with his 'Personnages', probably made with oil paint and ink. Just look at how the surface texture has been built up, a warm beige ground with blurry washes of dark and light, maybe with a rag. You can sense Miró feeling his way around the canvas, deciding where each figure should sit. Those characters are so buoyant and alive. It's like he's letting his mind wander freely, each line and shape born from the last, an intuitive dance across the surface. There’s a certain humor in their stick-like limbs, the way they float in space, all connected but independent. I wonder if he was thinking of Klee's drawings? Painters, you know, we’re always having a dialogue with each other, a conversation across time. Miró's work makes me want to grab a brush and join in, to create my own cast of characters and let them loose on a canvas. Painting is freedom like that.