Joan Miro

Joan Miró visited New York in 1947 and where he worked at Stanley William Hayter’s (1901-1988) pioneering print workshop Atelier 17, creating the plates for Série I and II (Lots 70-72). Hayter’s approach to intaglio printing was innovative and experimental. His studio, which had first been established in Paris in 1927 before relocating to New York at the outbreak of World War II, became a centre for the European and American avant-garde. It was presumably here that Miró met the American abstract painter Carl Holty (1900-1973), to whom one of the proofs is dedicated (Lot 71). The following three lots are some of only a few trial proofs printed by Miró at Atelier 17 in 1947, and reflect Hayter’s influence in their unconventional methods of inking: with a roller (lot 70), fingerprints (lot 71), and by selective wiping (lot 72). Each of the present impressions is unique. The plates returned to Paris with Miró, where they were printed by Lacourière and published by Maeght in 1952-53 in eight variations of 13 impressions each.