This lively work was originally created as a movie poster for the film Umbracle, an experimental feature film by Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella. Bold colors, lively imagery, and vivid spontaneity are standard to Miró’s iconic works, and this piece is no exception.
Miró focuses on the title of the film, spelling out the title in letters that appear to buzz with animation. He utilizes swirling lines that surround the letters to create this sense of energy. He frames the title writing in his trademark fanciful forms such as asterisks, eyes, and arrows that add a splash of color in green, blue, yellow, and red. This original color lithograph was printed before the additional movie credit lettering seen on the poster, allowing the viewer to focus on Miro’s whimsical depiction of the title Umbracle.
Created in 1973, this original color lithograph is hand-signed in the lower right in pencil by Joan Miró (Barcelona, 1893 – Palma, 1983) and also signed in the stone ‘Miró’ in black in the left of the image . This work is an artist’s proof aside from the edition of 50 (there was also the poster edition of 500) annotated ‘H.C’ (hors d’commerce or artist’s proof) in pencil in the lower left. This work was published by Sala Gaspar, Barcelona and printed by Puresa, Barcelona.
