Joan Miró

(Barcelona, 1893 – Palma de Mallorca, 1983)

Le Lézard aux Plumes d’Or (The Lizard with Golden Feathers)

1971

Portfolio Le Lézard aux Plumes d’Or (The Lizard with Golden Feathers)

lithograph on paper (H.C.)

40.9 x 56 cm

Inv. no. 557135

BBVA Collection Spain



In the overall context of Joan Miró’s long career, the period between 1971 and 1975 is complex and obscure, underwritten by a profound sense of pessimism triggered by the political and social situation of Spain at the time. In 1971, Miró was seriously depressed and he temporarily abandoned painting, focusing his energy instead on printing and illustration. But the despondency he was going through did not prevent him from creating interesting bodies of work on paper notable for their experimental approach and technical quality.

Worth highlighting among them are the illustrations he made for Le Lézard aux Plumes d’Or (The Lizard with Golden Feathers), a portfolio published by Louis Broder and printed in Paris by Mourlot. Originally conceived to be issued in 1967, the portfolio was not published until 1971. It consists of fifteen lithographs, accompanied by a poem by Miró, handwritten by the artist himself throughout twenty-six pages. The engravings in this collection exemplify Miró’s work in those years: the evident dominance of black, reflecting the tragic mood holding sway at the time. However, the artist also made use of several of his signature tones—green, blue, yellow, red—to recreate a dreamlike world that represents to perfection the surreal values of the poem in the portfolio.

This original lithograph belongs to that body of work, and evinces the specificity of the period. In technical terms, it shows Miró’s mastery of engraving, with flat and powerful inks contrasting against a mottled background that brings depth to the composition and provides some spontaneity to the piece. Unlike other engravings with characters and cosmic elements floating freely against a white background, here Miró organized the work chromatically, giving rise to a colour grid of sorts, partially concealed behind a conspicuous and all-enveloping black shape.

Le Lézard aux Plumes d’Or (The Lizard with Golden Feathers) is considered one of the main pieces made by Miró that year for its extraordinary combination of two of his greatest interests: poetry and graphic work. As Nicolas Calas argues, in this series “Miró modulates the images of his poetry following the movements of his hand and his handwriting, adapting it to the curves of the poem to make a baroque drawing.”