Although he is best known for paintings, sculptures and ceramics, Joan Miró (1893–1983) also illustrated some 250 artist’s books, working closely with writers and printers to ensure his colourful biomorphic shapes reached a wide audience. In 1958 Miró collaborated with the French poet and fellow Surrealist Paul Éluard to create À toute épreuve (‘Proof Against All’), in which Miró’s playful designs overlap with and sometimes interrupt Éluard’s poems. Both men were inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s conviction that books ought to be sources of visual adventure rather than simply repositories of words on a page. Miró cut 233 woodblocks for the book’s 80 prints; the result is one of his most charming creations, two copies of which are held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco – one bound, the other not. This display is centred around the bound edition, making clear the painstaking lengths to which Miró went to create seemingly offhand designs (25 July–25 July 2027).
Find out more from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s website.
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