Joan Miró's Printmaking Workshops; Patricia Gómez & María Jesús Gonzáles, Death Time Project (2011) (front and right behind); Antoni Miralda, Stomach Potato after Miró (2012) (left behind); right from the speaker is Nevenka Šivavec, director of MGLC, 30th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2013, opening of the accompanying exhibition at Kresija Gallery.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.
Miró’s name returned to the Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, where in 1965 he shared the Grand Prize with Victor Vasarely. Joan Miró was an artist with a restless soul who was constantly experimenting with new forms of art-making. In 1956, he moved to the estate Son Abrines, on the island of Mallorca, where he opened his first painting studio and where, in 1959, he purchased the adjoining property, Son Boter. It was here that he set up not only a sculpture workshop but also workshops for lithography and intaglio printing. In this setting he worked tirelessly, well aware of the enormous potential for disseminating these artistic media. Concerned that his workshops might not be preserved and that later generations would be unable to use them, the artist bequeathed them to the City of Palma, which was the beginning of today’s Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró (the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation). Since that time, in accordance with Miró’s wishes, the workshops have hosted a large number of important Spanish and international artists, who have worked there and made artworks that today are part of the Foundation’s permanent collection.
To present Miró’s printmaking workshops at the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, five projects have been chosen that were realised over the years by five artists or artist groups (Wolf Vostell, Wayne Crothers, Democracia, Antonio Miralda, and the duo Patricia Gómez and Maria Jesús Gonzalez). Also on view was the complete creative process for print no. 9 from Joan Miró’s series Els gossos (The Dogs) – the work’s original design, the matrix, and a proof print, all of which Miró made in his printmaking workshops.
The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca.
Artists: Wolf Vostell, Wayne Crothers, Democracia, Antonio Miralda and a group of young artists that formed around Patricia Gómez and Maria Jesús González.
Curator: Elvira Cámara López.