{"data":{"id":79593,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/79593","is_boosted":false,"title":"Ciphers and Constellations in Love with a Woman","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBAAFAPQAAJCDaZ2LfbyKe3Z9hpKXkZaZlqmag6mdl7Kel7KhmpqttuCehsCzncKvose4pcu5pcu8rtK2pMnBt9vLtAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAEAAUAAAUR4AQIC2MkTxA5CgIdQyMVRAgAOw==","width":3329,"height":4005,"alt_text":"A work made of opaque watercolor with watercolor washes on ivory, rough textured wove paper."},"main_reference_number":"1953.338","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1941,"date_end":1941,"date_display":"1941","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Joan Mir\u00f3\nSpanish, 1893-1983","place_of_origin":"Spain","description":"<p>Joan Mir\u00f3 was one of the pioneers of Surrealism. By engaging with contemporary psychology and especially theories of the subconscious, and playing with form, he developed a style based on whimsical allusions to reality and lyrical, fancifully colored compositions. In January 1940, he began a series of twenty-three works on paper that later became known as <em>The Constellations<\/em>, of which this is an example. Composed on identically sized sheets of paper over twenty-one months, this remarkably poetic suite was created from January 1940 to September 1941, under the duress of World War II, when Mir\u00f3 and his family moved from France to his native Spain to avoid the advance of the Nazis. About the \u201cConstellations\u201d he stated: \u201cIf the interplay of lines and colors does not expose the inner drama of the creator, then it is nothing more than bourgeois entertainment. The forms expressed by an individual who is part of society must reveal the movement of a soul trying to escape the reality of the present. . . . in order to approach new realities, to offer men the possibility of rising above the present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mir\u00f3 chose a stiff, textured watercolor paper for the series, and began each sheet by sanding the surface, then rubbing his freshly cleaned oil paint brushes over the paper, sometimes blending it with thinned gouache so that the two incompatible liquids created diaphanous, cloud-like pools. In these suggestive fields, he constructed his visual story, covering the sheet with hourglass shapes and a multitude of forms suggesting crescents, eyes, stars, and triangles, linked by thin black lines to evoke an imaginary celestial world. Each picture took about a month to complete, demonstrating his intense engagement with the images. Mir\u00f3 titled the works as if each were a poem, and the background suggests night and day, alternately, evoking imaginary atmospheres, and characters in space.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"45.9 \u00d7 38 cm (18 1\/8 \u00d7 15 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":38,"height":45,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Opaque watercolor with watercolor washes on ivory, rough textured wove paper","inscriptions":"Signed recto, bottom center, in gouache: \"Mir\u00f3\"; inscribed verso:  \u201cJoan Mir\u00f3 \/  Chiffres et constellations amoureux  \/  d\u2019une femme \/  Palma de Majorque \/ 12 VI 1941\u201d","credit_line":"Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Pictures on Exhibit, 5 (January 1945), pp. 14, 16, and 25 (ill.).\n\nColumbus Museum of Art, The Early Works of Charles E. Burchfield, 1915-1921 (Columbus, Ohio, 1987), p. 122 (ill.).\n\nPierre Sterckx, \"Constellations chaotiques,\" BeauxArts Magazine, 10 (2004), p. 72.","exhibition_history":"New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, \"Joan Miro,\" January 9\u2013February 3, 1945, cat. 19.\n\nNew York, Aquavella Gallery, \"Joan Miro,\" October 18\u2013November 18, 1972, cat. 43 (ill.).\n\nZurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, \"Joan Mir\u00f3,\" November 21, 1986-February 1, 1987, cat. 106; traveled to Dusseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle, February 13-April 20, 1987, and New York, Solomon R. Guggeneheim Museum, May 15-August 23, 1987.\n\nBarcelona, Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3, \"Joan Mir\u00f3,\" November 24, 1988-January 15, 1989; traveled to London, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, February 3-April 23, 1989.\n\nNew York, The Museum of Modern Art, \"Joan Mir\u00f3,\" October 13, 1993-January 18, 1994, cat. 175.\n\nBasel, Switzerland, Fondation Beyeler, \"Calder and Mir\u00f3,\" May-August 2004; traveled to Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, October 9, 2004-January 23, 2005.\n\nNew York, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., \"Mir\u00f3: The Constellations\", April 20 - May 26, 2017.","provenance_text":"The artist to Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1944 [according to notes from Pierre Matisse].  Given by Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman, Chicago, to the Art Institute, 1953.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":3,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":1280,"copyright_notice":"\u00a9 2018 Successi\u00f3 Mir\u00f3 \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York \/ ADAGP, Paris","has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":50.4111,"color":{"h":2,"l":50,"s":66,"percentage":0.02945065724245635,"population":251},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Drawing and Watercolor","artwork_type_id":14,"department_title":"Prints and Drawings","department_id":"PC-13","artist_id":32048,"artist_title":"Joan Mir\u00f3","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[32048],"artist_titles":["Joan Mir\u00f3"],"category_ids":["PC-13"],"category_titles":["Prints and Drawings"],"term_titles":["gouache","paper (fiber product)","watercolor","water-base paint","paint","gouache","graphite","drawings (visual works)","prints and drawing","mythology"],"style_id":null,"style_title":null,"alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":[],"style_titles":[],"classification_id":"TM-221","classification_title":"gouache","alt_classification_ids":["TM-5","TM-4"],"classification_ids":["TM-221","TM-5","TM-4"],"classification_titles":["gouache","drawings (visual works)","prints and drawing"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":["TM-8766"],"subject_ids":["TM-8766"],"subject_titles":["mythology"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":["TM-2403","TM-3343","TM-2577","TM-2404","TM-2410"],"material_ids":["TM-2982","TM-2403","TM-3343","TM-2577","TM-2404","TM-2410"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)","watercolor","water-base paint","paint","gouache","graphite"],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"1c3dbd1c-5134-0b3c-a414-1a6af4078309","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1953.338"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Ciphers and Constellations in Love with a Woman"],"weight":18506,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2025-12-09T11:13:35-06:00","updated_at":"2026-08-05T23:32:12-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-07T05:05:17-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}