Joan Miro The Dog Barking at the Moon Awakens the Cock, The Crowing of the Cock Pecks at the Head of the Catalan Farmer Resting on the Table beside the Flask of Wine

Description

Artist: Joan Miro (1893, Spain – 1983, Spain)

Title: The Dog Barking at the Moon Awakens the Cock, The Crowing of the Cock Pecks at the Head of the Catalan Farmer Resting on the Table beside the Flask of Wine

Medium: Original Lithograph

Year:1952

Signature: Signed in the Plate

Publisher: Teriade, Paris: Editions de la Revue Verve 27,28

Printer: Fernand Mourlot, Paris

Dimensions: Sheet Size – 13 7/8 X 21 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
35×53 cm

Joan Miro: One of the most creative artists of the twentieth century, Joan Miro is as highly regarded for his lithographic art as for his paintings and sculpture. After the conclusion of World War One, Joan Miro traveled to Paris where he first was influenced by Cubism. Yet his infatuation with Cubism was short lived and Miro quickly became a leading exponent of both Dadaism and the Surrealist movement.
Most of Joan Miro’s early masterworks are derived from either dreams or hallucinations — the guiding elements of Surrealism. In an 1948 interview, however, he related, “Nowadays I rarely start a picture from a hallucination. What is most interesting to me today is the material I am working with. It supplies the shock which suggests the form just as cracks in the wall suggested shapes to Leonardo.” * One must therefore learn to read and interpret Joan Miro almost as if one were studying the symbolic meanings of hieroglyphics. Of all the giants of modern art, Joan Miro is surely the great delineator of our collective unconscious.
During his career, Joan Miro created many original lithographs and etchings. Some were printed in small, hand-signed editions while others were created in large editions ranging from one to two thousand five hundred impressions, mostly for periodicals such as Verve and Derriere le Mirror and as original posters for gallery exhibitions and other events.
The Dog Barking at the Moon Awakens the Cock, The Crowing of the Cock Pecks at the Head of the Catalan Farmer Resting on the Table beside the Flask of Wine was commissioned by the Paris publisher, Verve, for their 1952 double number volume. (A small, signed edition of fifty impressions were also published at this date.) Both sides of the sturdy, wove paper were used for printing and therefore two other original lithographs appear on the verso of this original colour lithograph. Both are studies related to the primary lithograph and one contains the title in French. The other is an abstract, color composition.
As The Dog Barking at the Moon is a large, double page lithograph and contains the vertical fold and slight pin prick holes for binding. Miro has signed the lithograph within the stone to the lower right. This original art has been matted on both sides in order to view the group of lithographs.
With its wonderful use of color and line The Dog Barking at the Moon has long been hailed as one of the artist’s greatest and most imaginative works of original art. It has now rightly assumed its place as one of the most famous prints of the twentieth century.
Verve: From 1937 to 1960 Verve was a leader for promoting modern movements in art. Printed and published in Paris, this periodical contained major articles on and by leading contemporary artists. More importantly, each issue contained at least one original print created specifically for the publication.
Some of the most sought after original lithographs of the twentieth century appeared in 1952 double number (#27 & 28) of Verve. These included Marc Chagall’s complete Visions de Paris set, Andre Masson’s, The Torrent, Henri Matisse’s, The Sadness of the King, Leger’s, The Outing, Miro’s, The Dog Barking at the Moon and original lithographs in both colors and black and white by Georges Braque, Henri Laurens, Alberto Giacometti, Francisco Bores and Marcel Gromaire. Original works of art printed by Verve never appeared in pencil signed and limited editions, but most were published in numbers of two thousand five hundred or less.
Raisonne: Fernand Mourlot, Joan Miro lithographe, Paris, Vol. 1, 1972. Catalogue #189.
Reference: * H. J. Wechsler, Great Prints & Printmakers, New York, Leon Amiel, 1977, p. 225.