Untitled [plate L] 1958

This is an untitled print by Joan Miró, made using lithography. Isn’t it lovely? There's a freedom in the way he lets those colours sit next to each other, a real sense of play. It's like he's saying, "Here are some shapes, some colours, now you figure out the story." Look at the flat black shapes that seem to float on the page, anchoring the colourful constellations of stars and abstract forms. It’s the texture of the printmaking that really gets me - that slight graininess gives the whole thing a kind of earthy feel. Notice the way the colours overlap, creating new shades and tones, like in the central eye, where greens and blues meet reds. The process feels very visible. Miró’s work is often about this kind of visual poetry. He was pals with people like Kandinsky, and you see echoes of that impulse to find a universal language through abstract forms. He allows us to bring our own experiences and associations to the work, and in that way, the meaning is always shifting, always alive.