Head of a Catalan Peasant 1924

Joan Miró painted this large canvas, Head of a Catalan Peasant, using oil paint, and look at that luscious buttery yellow, it looks good enough to eat! Miró is playing with a symbolic language that feels both ancient and futuristic, and you can almost imagine him working on it, adding and subtracting elements, simplifying forms to their essence. I love how the red shape on top suggests a head, while the lines and hanging forms create a body and grounding. What do you think he was thinking about when he made it? Was it the earth and the sky, all at once? The material aspect of the paint, the yellow ochre, combined with these simple black lines, give the work a deep emotional resonance. Painters are always in conversation with each other across time, and I think Miró’s piece makes painting itself an ongoing form of expression.