MONACO.- Galerie Gmurzynska is presenting La Peinture au défi, an exhibition encompassing 65 works by Joan Miró at Nouveau Musée National Monaco, Villa Paloma.
The exhibition is a return for Miró to Monte-Carlo where he worked on Diaghilev’s 1932 Ballets Russes, the Jeux d` Enfants. The very painting used in the original ballet will return to Monaco for the first time, making it one of the highlights of the exhibition.
“One of the merits of this exhibition is to remind us that the painter created the stage curtain, sets, costumes and props for the ballet Jeux d’enfants. Knowing this enables us to fully appreciate the good fortune of the Monegasque public when the music of George Bizet, a libretto by Boris Kochno, choreography by Léonide Massine, the unparalleled talent of the Ballets Russes and the inimitable visual language of Joan Miró were brought together in the Principality in 1932. The stage photographs and correspondence between Kochno and the painter from the collection of the NMNM give evidence of this tremendous encounter.” - HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco
“This exhibition was born out of the time of Covid-19 in order to create some happiness in unruly times” envisions curator Isabelle Bscher, co-owner of Galerie Gmurzynska. “In his paintings, he offered escape from the horrors of the First World War, the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. This exhibition spans from great dreamscapes of the 1920s to the work of the 1970s, which sometimes veer towards the destruction of painting. All through his life, Miró was a great revolutionary – all the while being a humanitarian opposing extremism and the repression of ideas.” she added.
The show is a unique opportunity to experience these distinct bodies of work from the formative working periods of Miró, allowing a glimpse into the artistic concerns and methodologies employed by this Modern Master at a time of significant political and social transformations in Western Europe.
A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Joan Punyet Miró, Joachim Pissarro, Robert Lubar Messeri Jérôme Neutres, Clara Montero, Bernardo Laniado-Romero.
