Joan Miró (1893-1983)

"The drawings that I sometimes do before doing certain paintings are an intimate document, so to speak - they help me arrive at a complete formal divestiture and thus attain the true expression of the spirit. Once the paintings are finished, I destroy these drawings or else hold on to them to use a a springboard for the other works. The drawings you have are not all preparations for paintings, but definite drawing-drawings". (Joan Miró in a letter to Pierre Matisse, 7 March 1937 in 'Joan Miró Selected Writings and Interviews', (ed.) M. Rowell, Boston, 1986, p. 148).