The Kerosene Lamp

Joan MiróWW-1924-029629

1924·Charcoal, with red Conté and colored crayons, touches of graphite, and scraping, heightened with white oil paint, on canvas prepared with a glue ground·81 × 100.3 cm (31 15/16 × 39 1/2 in.)

<p>The Spanish artist Joan Miró was one of the leading exponents of Surrealism. His drawing <em>The Kerosene Lamp</em> has often been interpreted as autobiographical—a view of the artist's studio—but the elements of his work are intended to be suggestive rather than specific in meaning.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1924
Medium: Charcoal, with red Conté and colored crayons, touches of graphite, and scraping, heightened with white oil paint, on canvas prepared with a glue ground
Dimensions: 81 × 100.3 cm (31 15/16 × 39 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Joan Miró

Artist

Joan Miró

Painting

Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramist from Spain. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma, Mallorca in 1981. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism but with a personal style, sometimes also veering into Fauvism and Expressionism. He was notable for his interest in the unconscious or the subconscious mind, reflected in his re-creation of the childlike. His difficult-to-classify works also had a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

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