L’astre du marécage 1967

Curator: Immediately I see playful chaos—it's like looking into a vibrant, imaginative world. The shapes feel like they're dancing on the canvas, yet grounded. Editor: Here we have Joan Miró’s "L’astre du marécage," or "The Star of the Marsh," a mixed-media collage and ink work dating to 1967. Note how the spattered ink lends texture, contrasting with smoother applications of paint and collaged elements. Curator: Yes! The splatters remind me of the night sky… almost like accidental constellations. And the earthy colors offset by brighter accents give it this dreamlike, almost surreal quality. It's amazing how something so abstract can still feel deeply rooted. I like that very much about Miró. Editor: Exactly! The composition, although seemingly random, adheres to an underlying structure. Circles echo throughout, creating visual harmony and drawing the eye. The stark contrasts—the dark, almost earthy blacks and grays against vivid reds, greens, blues and yellows—heighten the overall impact. It is also significant that the constellation-like spattering is visually opposed by those grounded, blob-like figures—these are not stars or astral projections; this artwork is "terrestrial." Curator: Terrestrial but maybe still reaching for the stars? There’s this…long, elongated shape across the middle with curved ends; It kind of suggests this earthly grounded creature reaching out. Editor: Or perhaps constrained by that very nature. Miró was exploring subconscious thoughts and emotional states at this point. The stark symbols and simplified forms become vehicles to communicate those subconscious desires, which are bound in any number of ways. Curator: And even today, don’t we do the same with our quick sketches? Capture something fleeting and precious? "The Star of the Marsh" seems to remind us that we’re all just scribbling our little dreams and desires into the vast unknown. And how gorgeous it is, really, even in its roughness. Editor: Precisely, by combining these elements, the cosmic with the mundane, Miró elevates our earthly experiences, urging viewers to rediscover the profound beauty in simplicity, even amidst life's swampiest moments.