Carnival of the Harlequin: Joan Miró

CatalanSpanishpainter JoanMiro (1893-1983) thoughtofhimself as both painter and poet. For him, painting was a means to express his inner life through visionary art (first and second epigraphs). When he stood in front of a canvas, he said: “I never knowwhat I’m going to do—and nobody ismore surprised thanme at what comes out.”2(p117) Yet once the images were apparent to him, he took care in their execution, seeking to probe deeper into the nature of reality.3 Miro’s father was a goldsmith, and hismother came from a family of cabinetmakers; thus, from childhood, he learned to appreciate the quality of skilled craftsmanship. He began drawing classes at 7 years of age at a private school in amedieval mansion in Barcelona, Spain. At 14 years of age, Miro enrolled at the Barcelona fine art academy at La Llotja (where Picassohad studied), despite his father’s objections. Later, his father prevailed and insisted that Joan enter a career in business. But he was not suited to such work and, despairing, became seriously ill. He was sent to a newly acquired family farm southwest of Barcelona to recuperate. Afterwards, his father relented and allowedhim to continuehis art education in Barcelona and in Paris, France. Although influenced by French poets and writers and attracted to surrealism, he rejected membership in any artistic movement and developed his ownuniqueworking style. Temperamentally, hewas conservative, shy, and taciturn, unlike many of his colleagues. Throughout the mid-1920s, Miro developed his hyperrealistic approach to art, which gives equal emphasis to details large and small, near and far, and does not adhere to conventional perspective. The absence of such hierarchical distinctions andattention todetail is characteristic of primitive styles of representational art, such as traditional devotional Catalonian retables.4 EmblematicofMiro’shyperrealistic approacharehispaintings The Farm and The Tilled Field. The Farm is an inventory of the rural life that interestedMiromostdeeply.4 It is crammed with life: a dog, a tilled field, a tree, a ladder, a rooster, farm animals, a bird, and a peasant woman—it is an ode to the life of the Catalan peasant. The elements in it (in particular, the ladder) became prototypes for his later work. The ladder in The Farm rises from the solid earth and becomes a safe perch for birds or a place from which to fly away. The ladder becameoneofMiro’smost representative signs. Inhis laterwork, it evolved into the ladder of escape—his symbolic “means to communicate between the tangible and the intangible.”3(p29) Throughhisexposure to thesurrealists inParis,Miro found a newapproach to his art. The surrealists sought towiden the scope of perception by amplifying dreams and hallucinations. Fromthem,Miro learned that imaginarypaintingmight sow seeds in the viewer that could sprout and grow. He paid the same exquisite attention to detail in his imaginativework that he had earlier in his drawings of insects, fish, and birds. Still,Mirodidnotcompletelyabandonsubjectmatterbutmaintained a symbolic, schematic language. In Carnival of the Harlequin (1924-1925) (Figure), Miro adapts the size and shape of each object and each creature shown to his own purpose. The images are childlike and of unusual sizes, features, and coloring producing an extravaganza that rhythmically unifies forms and color. Despite the childlike quality, there is a precision and a poetic quality to this work. The carnival may be Mardi Gras, the celebration that occursbeforeLent.Harlequin is a comic theater characterknown for his checkered costume. He is a trickster figure, a lighthearted, nimble servant who often thwarted the plans of his master and sometimes was a victim of unrequited love. Frequently, Harlequin plays the guitar; inMiro’s painting, he is a guitar.Hewears adiamond-patternedshirt andexhibits all the traditional features, amustache, an admiral’s hat, and a pipe. He looks sad despite the joyous scenewithmanyhybrid creatures celebrating around him, playing, singing, and dancing. The ladder is anthropomorphic and has an ear and an eye. When asked about his state ofmindwhen creating this painting,Miro said that he had few financial resources at that time and was often hungry, nearly starving. The hallucinations caused by hunger sent him into a kind of trance that resulted in him seeing surreal hallucinatory images that he sketched and incorporated into his art.2 Despite how he presented himself to the world, his persona, Miro had a tragic sense about himself. He spoke of the isolation of his youth and depicts in Carnival of the Harlequin a sad Harlequin surrounded by frenzy.1 The Harlequin has a hole in his abdomen, and a sharp rod or nail pierces the side ofhishead,perhaps reflectiveofMiro’smental stateat the time. Years later, in 1939, Miro described, in surrealistic stream-ofconsciousnessprose,his feelingsat the timehepaintedtheCarnival of the Harlequin (see artist description next to Figure).