Miro's work presents extraordinary contradictions: it is at once decorative and powerfully expressive; childlike yet articulate; spontaneous but impeccably designed; joyous yet loaded with tragic implication. The fantasy and magic of his images yield a light-hearted exuberance that is balancd by the harsher realities of a timeless symbolism and a somber poetry...The "Woman, Bird, and Stars" is a frequent theme of Miro's work, evoking the primitive union of mythological entities with a decorative, lyrical spirit. The moon-like woman makes her appearance in a magical cosmology, where stars and birds are suspended in ordered positions within her delicate white universe. The rudely naive forms have a gay whimsey, that is at the same time contradicted by the wonderfully awesome symbolism. Characteristic of Miro's painting of the early forties, it presents a summation of his imaginartive formal inventions, in the most simple poetic terms.
Source: DMAC Bulletim, March, 1966
With simple shapes drawn in a childlike style, Miró suggests form and movement rather than literally portraying it. The subject of this painting, the trinity of bird, woman, and stars, is a motif Miró used often. He felt all three could be seen as mythological entities, presenting them in his distinctive brightly-colored and playful manner. This combination of innocence and complex imagery exists in much of Miró’s work, cementing his connection with Surrealism and that movement’s focus on dreams and symbolism.
Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections upon the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997
"The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries," Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, Oct. 10 - Nov. 28, 1971
"First Showing of Paintings, Gouache, Pastels and Drawings by Joan Miro," Pierre Matisse Gallery, N. Y., Apr. - May 1952
Published ReferencesDES MOINES REGISTER, Mar. 5, 1966
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.157
DMAC Bulletin, Mar. 1966
DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, Mar. 20, 1966
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.192, color ill. p.193
"Joan Miro 1918-1945", exhibition catalog for "Joan Miro: 1918-1945", July 27-Deptember 23, 2002, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo and October 4-December 1, 2002, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya. 213 pages. Page 143 is image of "Woman, Bird, Stars", 1942. Exhibition catalog given to library on 2002/10/1.
Image: 40 5/8 × 29 1/2 in. (103.2 × 74.9 cm)
