Women and Birds 1960

Joan Miró made this piece, Women and Birds, with paint on what looks like a heavily textured ground, maybe even collage. The shapes! They're so gestural and confident. And the colours! Red and black dominate, but there's this incredible gold leaf peeking through, giving it a shimmer. The texture feels like it could be anything – crumpled paper, maybe? Miró wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and that's so clear here. Look at the little bursts of green and yellow, just enough to set off the blacks and reds. And the black lines, so bold. They remind me of Cy Twombly’s scribbles, but more contained, more playful. It's like a visual poem, open to interpretation, but grounded in the physicality of the paint itself. What a conversation this piece can have with art history!