Character and Bird in the Night 1967

Joan Miró made this painting called 'Character and Bird in the Night' with some kind of paint that he slapped on with loose but assured movements of his hand. Miró was just feeling it out! The forms are built up from dark contours and then flooded with flat colours: yellow, blue, red, green. It must have been amazing to make a painting like this. I can imagine him moving the brush around, finding that form and then another one next to it. There’s this dark calligraphic shape in the lower part of the painting. It's heavy at the top but then it gets lighter, and then it gets thicker again. I am struck by his amazing, direct sensibility and freedom. He was a really beautiful painter and a weirdo. Miró and his surrealist buddies were always looking for new ways to unlock their subconscious and shake things up. You can feel him trying to be very direct in his marks, and how they relate to each other. Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do?