‘spanish dancer’

mixed media on board
440mm x 440mm
Kim Pieters 2018

from ‘the guitar lesson’ series
seven paintings

…Because we had ties of friendship, Picasso came to the rue Blomet. He then used to live in the rue La Boétie and he, too, took the Nord-Sud. In the autumn of 1924, he was very keen on my ‘Spanish dancer’ which was no more than a charcoal sketch on canvas. I had stopped, not knowing how to continue. He told me to leave her like that and so she stayed. “After me,” he also said, “it is you who are opening a new door!”…

Joan Miró ‘Souvenir de la rue Blomet’
Unpublished memoir, transcribed by Jacques Dupin, 1977

from
‘I’m going to smash their guitar’ Joan Miró 1917-1934
catalogue to the exhibition “La Naissance du Mode“
(Birth of the World)
in Galerie 1,Centre Pompidou from 3 March to 28th June.
Paris.France.2004.

…I ate little and badly. I’ve already said that at the time starvation used to give me hallucinations, and hallucinations gave me ideas for paintings. I remember that on one occasion Arp had come to see me, and I shared some radishes with him, which was all I had. Sometimes a Catalan visitor would bring me some local salami and provisions from Barcelona. It was a period of very hard work. I filled books and books with drawings, which were the starting point for my canvases. I have recently discovered dozens of sketchbooks, and thousands of drawings, some of which date from the rue Blomet. I had forgotten they existed. They are now deposited with the Foundation in Barcelona…

Joan Miró ‘Souvenir de la rue Blomet’
Unpublished memoir, transcribed by Jacques Dupin, 1977

from
‘I’m going to smash their guitar’ Joan Miró 1917-1934
catalogue to the exhibition “La Naissance du Mode“
(Birth of the World)
in Galerie 1,Centre Pompidou from 3 March to 28th June.
Paris.France.2004.