During my visit to the Museum of Modern Art, there were plenty of images and sculptures that I found interesting but the piece that struck me the most was Joan Miró’s, The Birth of the World from 1925.
Joan Miró was a Spanish painter and printmaker born in Barcelona in 1893. He had a love for drawing at an early age which prompted him to pursue art-making and and study landscape and decorative art at the School of Industrial and Fine Arts in Barcelona. Miró was exposed to modern art movements in 1912 with his entry into an art academy in Barcelona.
Like many modernist, Miró rejected the restricted traditional painting and instead favored the Surrealist as well as the style of Automatism. Surrealism is a 20th century movement in art and literature that south to release the creative potential of the unconscious mine. Automatism is a method of random drawing that attempted to express the inner workings of human psyche. By looking at his work, it becomes evident that Miró engaged in both of these artist methods.
In the painting, The Birth of the World, it appears as if the artist took a paintbrush and painted with his eyes closed. There’s a balloon, the only object that is of a bright color. The geometric shapes, particularly the red circle and black triangle appear to be floating. The painting seems irrational which can relate to the unconscious mind and surrealism as well as automatism. Miró most likely painted from his unconscious mind which is why its hard to decipher the meaning behind it. It appears to be his stream of consciousness in the form of art, though it is not clear what the meaning is.
According to the Museum of Modern Art, Miró described his method for this painting as, “Rather than setting out of paint something I began painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself, or suggest itself under my brush… the first stage is free, unconscious.” This reveals the crude approach to Miró’s art.
The reason this piece struck me was because to me it appeared eerie and childlike in its composition. The overall painting lacks complexity yet its interesting to think of what the meaning is behind it. The juxtaposition of images doesn’t explicitly make sense, however, it follows modernist techniques. When I first encountered the painting, I was curious to know the deeper meaning is. As a person with meager artistic knowledge, it seemed different and that’s why I thought it was interesting.
Miró’s The Birth of the World is evidently a modernist piece, specifically a Surrealist piece, because of its peculiar form and the fact that it doesn’t pertain to traditional art such as a realist piece. One glance at it can keep an observer perplexed because it doesn’t immediately make sense.
Despite looking at this painting multiple times, I am still very curious to know what the meaning behind it is. To me, it appears to be very elementary yet sophisticated enough to be showcased at a museum.