Untitled

Prints and Drawings

late July–early October 1929

Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893-1983

The forms of Joan Miró’s drawn elements in Untitled are schematically rendered yet recognizable. A conical, tipped weathervane, planets and comets in orbit, and a flaming horizon line are interrupted by the abstract geometries of collaged circles of rust, brown, tan, and white paper.

Untitled is one of 22 large-scale chromatically austere collages Miró made between July and November 1929. In these works, he kept his drawn lines to a minimum. Miró described his collages as “drawings with new explorations into substance,” and as “training exercises, shadowboxing, so as to hit harder and harder, in a tougher and more energetic way.”

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Joan Miró
Title: Untitled
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1929
Medium: Collage of cut and pasted papers (including flocked paper), and black Conté crayon, with touches of white gouache, pen and black ink, and traces of graphite, on cream wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated verso, upper left, in pen and brown ink: "Miró / été 1929"
Dimensions: 65.9 × 98.9 cm (26 × 38 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2022.86
Copyright: © 2008 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Herta Wescher, “Collages and the Breakdown of Optical Unity,” Graphis 11:57 (1955), p. 56 (color ill.).
Jacques Dupin, Joan Miró: Life and Work (New York, 1962), pp. 203-04, and 521 (ill.), no. 253.
Herta Wescher, Collage (New York, 1971), pp. 190-91, and 364, pl. 149.
Rosa Maria Malet, “De l’assassinat de la pintura a les Constel-lacions,” Impactes: Joan Miró, 1929-1941 (Barcelona, 1988), p. 10.
Anne Umland, “Joan Miró’s Collage of Summer 1929: La Peinture au défi?,” Studies in Modern Art 2: Essays on Assemblage (New York, 1992), pp. 9 and 58, fig. 10.

Paris, Galerie Pierre, “Exposition Joan Miró: Oeuvres récentes,” March 15-22, 1930.
New York, Kootz Gallery, “Vlaminck, Léger, Miró,” January 28-February 16, 1952, cat. 12.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections,” December 1, 1984-January 27, 1985, p. 197 (ill.), as “Summer.”
Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, “Joan Miró,” November 21, 1986-February 1, 1987, n.p., cat. 62 (color ill.), as “Dessin-collage.”
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Joan Miró: A Retrospective,” May 15-August 23, 1987, p. 126, cat. 54 (color ill.), as “Drawing-Collage.”
Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, “Impactes: Joan Miró, 1929-1941,” November 24, 1988-January 15, 1989, p. 29, cat. 3 (color ill.), as “Papier collé.”
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, “Joan Miró: Paintings and Drawings, 1929-1941,” February 3-April 23, 1989, n.p. (color Ill.), as “Papier collé.”
New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Joan Miró,” October 17, 1993-January 11, 1994, pp. 173 (color ill.) and 394, cat. 85.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Collecting for Chicago: Prints, Drawings, and Patronage,” June 14-September 14, 2008.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 20, 2011, cat. 96 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection, Jan. 25–Oct. 12, 2020; traveled to New York, Morgan Library and Museum, Feb. 19–June 6, 2021.

The artist to Galerie Pierre, Paris [New York 1993, exh. cat.]. Samuel Kootz, New York, by 1952 [New York 1952, exh. cat.]. Harold Diamond, New York. Thomas Borgmann, Cologne. Galerie Paolo Spovieri, Rome. Sold by Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, 1981 [post–1952 provenance is according to New York 1993, exh. cat.] (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2008); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

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