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The Politicisation of Art and Negation of Negation

The Politicisation of Art and Negation of Negation

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Anna Vives

Joan Miró returns to the Modern in The politicisation of art and negation of negation

René Bernard: And yet you have never been engaged in any direct action. Miró: Don’t you think that the revolution of forms can be liberating? Unsettling people by forcing them to wake up.1

The institutionalisation of Miró’s work is shaped by its exhibiting in different foundations and museums around the world: the Fundació in ; the - Musée National d’Art Contemporain in ; the Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght in Saint Paul-de-Vence, France; the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Palma de ;

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the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Burlington Galleries (1936); Zwemmer (MOMA), New Gallery (1937); Mayor Gallery (1938); Tate York; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Gallery (1964); Marlborough Gallery (1966); Reina Sofía, ; the Miró Bronzes, Hayward Gallery (1972); of Art, Washington; the Philadelphia Miró Drawings, Hayward Gallery (1979); Museum of Art; and the Metropolitan and Joan Miró: and Drawings Museum of Art, New York. Nonetheless, 1929-41, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1989). these institutions only represent one This time the showed a total side of the public display of Miró’s of some 150 works distributed in thirteen work. From the Sapporo-Ya restaurant rooms, the contents of which might be in San Francisco’s Japantown, through summed up as follows: rural motifs taken comments to the Fielding Johnson Building at the from the vicinity of Mont-roig, Tarragona; University of Leicester, this everyday the figure of the Catalan peasant; Mont- and small-scale presence of Miró’s work roig from a surrealist perspective; suggests that this artist is embedded paintings on masonite and copper and in the collective imaginaries of a wide the “wild” paintings; impressions of the range of societies. The fact that such Civil War and the Pavilion of the Spanish different societies embrace him links Republic (World’s Fair, Paris, 1937); the up with his idea (taken from Confucius) ; the Constel·lacions that all men are equal and only customs (); his reencounter with the differ. The almost mythical strand that motifs of the Constel·lacions; unites such a variety of places in their and reworked earlier canvases; triptychs enthusiasm for Miró is related with the with chromatic saturation; the “other Miró” political-poetic nature of his work, which and the burnt canvases; the triptychs of is of sufficient detail to see within it his Catalan nationalism, or his support for the the prisoner and the condemned man; Republic, for example, but also sufficiently the fireworks triptych and the Majesties general to emphasise the need to express sculptures. More recently, the exhibition th the spirit of the subject through art. All has been shown (16 October 2011 to th these aspects are crucial for understanding 18 March 2012) in the Fundació Miró in Miró’s socio-political position. Barcelona, while the public in Washington may now enjoy it in the National Gallery From 14th April until 11th September 2011 of Art, from 6th May to 12th August 2012. (dates of the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic and the National Day of The cover of the catalogue for the London commemorating the 1714 Siege exhibition informs the reader, “Famed for of Barcelona, respectively) the Tate Modern saying that he had come to assassinate offered Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, , Miró nevertheless made a huge the most comprehensive exhibition of contribution to the art of the 20th century his work in Great Britain for almost half […] For the first time this book examines a century, and the tenth Miró exhibition Miró’s legacy through the context of the in London after preceding shows in the turbulent times in which he lived […] following galleries: Mayor Gallery (1933); Miró’s political beliefs underpinned his International Surrealist Exhibition, New art throughout his long and productive

■ 1 René Bernard, "Miró to L’Express: Violence Liberates”, Selected Writings and Interviews, ed. Margit Rowell (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1992), pp. 303-305 (p. 303).

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career”2. Miró’s political engagement is some of Miró’s works that might seem to manifest in two ways, the thematic and the lack a social dimension. After seeing his formal. This is very clear in Aidez l’Espagne Constel·lacions, André Breton expressed (Help Spain, 1937) and Le Faucheur (The this by pointing out the opposition Reaper), the latter of which was exhibited between a time of tremendous upheaval very close to Picasso’s in the and escapism in the form of flight to the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic in the realm of the purest, the least changeable. 1937 World’s Fair in Paris3.Moreover, This aspect of Miró’s work fits neatly with actions like his participation in the with his acceptance speech when he was Spanish Pavilion, Miró was a model of awarded the distinction of Doctor Honoris democratic values for the younger artists Causa by the University of Barcelona, of the Barcelona-based Dau al Set group. in which he said the role of the artist is What about Miró’s formal revolution? to negate negation. If the socio-political People tend to look at his paintings as if situation gives the message that we are not they are childlike, without grasping the going to attain inner peace, then the artist passion entailed in them and making the must help us to find the path of evasion. preposterous observation that, “Anybody This is the “other Miró”. Hence a further can do that”. It would seem that only example of his formal revolution is The unawareness, lack of artistic knowledge Other Miró (1969), an artistic happening and undue pragmatism could lie behind in which Miró painted in public and then such statements. What Miró had to say erased his work, by this means expressing about his Peinture sur fond blanc pour his opposition to the establishment. la cellule d’un solitaire I, II, III (Painting The emptiness of the triptych L’Espoir on White Background for the Cell of a du condamné à mort I, II, II (The Wait Recluse, I, II, III, 1968) is relevant here: of a Man Condemned to Death, I, II, III) it only took him a moment to draw the represents the apogee of concept art black line but he needed months to form in which reality is used as the point of the idea of the line and maybe even departure but never as the point of arrival years (Rowell: 275). A similar meditative (Rowell: 74). This work conceptualises state may be found in the genesis of his the imminent execution of the young Constel·lacions, product of the restrictive revolutionary Salvador Puig Antich situation of the Second World War when in Barcelona’s Model Prison in 1974 even gazing at the sky with its stars and (Miró finished the work the very day of moon was not possible during some Puig Antich’s execution on 2nd March). of the time Miró spent in Varengeville, The synthesis of meaning and feeling . Hence he needed to create contained in the triptych through the red his own constellations. This escapism of the blood, the blue of the sky and the enables Miró to feel things that the climate yellow of the sun connotes much more of war would not let him feel, and it is extreme passion than that which can be this capturing of a poetic moment of achieved through typically figurative work. peace and plenitude that is political in However, Miró’s work is not abstract art

■ 2 Marko Daniel and Matthew Gale (eds.), Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape (London: Tate Publishing, 2011). The works discussed in this article are included therein. 3 The decision as to which Spanish artists would have the privilege of appearing in the Pavilion was made by Josep Renau and his wife Manuela Ballester Vilaseca. 57 The politicisation of art and negation of negation Anna Vives II

but a specific and poetic representation painting L’Echelle de l’evasión (The Ladder springing from the artist’s mind (Rowell: of Escape, 1940), and the other is the 151). The importance of poetry in his L’escala de l’ull que s’evadeix work dating from his time in Paris when (The Ladder of the Escaping Eye, 1971). In he was in contact with André Masson the former, black and red predominate but (and, through him, other surrealist poets) there are also touches of blue and white. was fundamental in shaping the nature One sees different clusters of images: stars of his creations. Furthermore, as is the and moon, a group of animals (a snake and case of many other avant-garde painters, a sparrow), and there are some characters Miró wrote poetry himself and this poetic that seem to be waiting for a moment of vision led him to speak of the passion and transcendence. A ladder stands out in the essence of his art in the following terms: middle of the picture which, moreover, has “I think the only people who matter are a touch of white, the colour that is scarcest the ones who are alive, the ones who put in the painting. The background consists their blood and soul into even the finest of light chromatic tonalities. The emphasis line or the smallest dot (Rowell: 98).” lies with the colours and forms and the The theories of Walter Benjamin are political thrust of the work is found in interesting with regard to the relationship the desire to escape and the subsequent between art and politics: while fascists plenitude of finding oneself even among turn politics into art, those who subscribe the stars. To return to the ladder, this is to opposite ideas are apt to be in favour of an element that is repeatedly highlighted the politicisation of art. One should bear in the Tate Modern exhibition and it is in mind that the exhibition at the Tate understood as a means for fleeing earthly Modern has also made its contribution circumstances together with sparrows, towards the politicisation of Miró’s work, flying insects, stars and comets. For Miró, which is to say it has reshaped his artistic the ladder goes beyond the condition of corpus in order to highlight certain social being a familiar material form () and political messages. I shall not attempt to symbolise escape, especially during to appraise this position except to note that the war. In other words, it comes to be a I believe that this is an indisputable fact. In poetic element. The ladder means flying particular in the case of works that do not and elevation. The sculpture L’escala de have an overt political message, the other l’ull que s’evadeix also shows a ladder, element that needs to be analysed in order although this time it is set on a pedestal to understand the political dimension of to draw attention to the idea of elevation Miró’s work is the idea of escapism: is of the spirit. The escaping eye suggests a escaping a political act? Perhaps it is not new way of understanding and seeing the directly political but Miró affirmed that world. Although the exhibition curators his way of reconciling the experiences indicate that the work which has given its of fascism, the and name to the show is the sculpture, both the Second World War with his aesthetic of these works help to give one a more world was to propose in his work a form precise idea of the concept of “ladder of escapism from the reality of the present of escape”. One might say that both the to a world where living was possible. gouache and the sculpture are political Two of Miró’s works on exhibit in the works because of their inherent escapism. Tate Modern have titles echoing that To conclude, the relationship between of the show. One is the constellation Miró’s art and politics is possibly less n&c II 58/59

visible than it is in the work of some of this in Cahiers d’art in 1939: “One must his contemporaries like Picasso because not confuse the commitments proposed his political engagement is more formal to the artist by professional politicians and less thematic, but if one looks at who and other specialists of agitation with the bought his work ( deep necessity that makes him take part in bought The Farm), where it was exhibited social upheavals, that attaches him and his (Pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the work to the heart and flesh of his neighbor 1937 World’s Fair in Paris), his explicit and makes the need for liberation in all support for the Republic (political of us a need of his own (Rowell: 166).” propaganda posters like Aidez l’Espagne), The exhibition in the Tate Modern shows his repetition of anarchist and nationalist some very good judgement. For example, themes (the Catalan flag, its red and yellow Miró wanted his monochrome works from stripes, and the typical Catalan peasant’s the nineteen sixties to be exhibited in a cap appear and reappear in his work), and sort of chapel so people could sit down and the occasions when he spoke out in public ponder them. This is how the Tate Modern against Franco, one sees very clearly that presented these works and the triptychs any thinking about Miró would not be of the prisoner and the condemned man. complete if one did not inquire into the However, there were a couple of points moments of political upheaval in Spain that might have been improved upon. In th and Europe during the 20 century. To the case of the burnt canvases, Miró talked give one example, it has been confirmed about the importance of seeing the reality that the sketch for one of the versions of surrounding the work through the holes the work Tête de paysan catalan (Head of made by fire. In this regard the burnt a Catalan Peasant, 1925) was done over canvases in the middle of the room should the front page of the newspaper Le Matin have been hung lower so that visitors rd dated 23 March 1925, on which appeared could see the movement of people through the news item titled “Rome célèbre le 6.º them. Finally, perhaps some (not many) anniversaire de la fondation du fascism”. might make the criticism that Miró’s work Faced with moments of great despair was politicised here but, the fact is, his and suffering, Miró reminds humanity works were already politicised by none that the expression of man’s mind and other than Miró himself and it was only spirit is necessary. These works constitute necessary to draw attention to this fact, political material from the more human which is what the Tate Modern did II and philosophical perspective. He explains

◗ Anna Vives is a teaching fellow in Catalan & Spanish at the School of Modern Languages, University of Leicester.

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