A PAINTING by Catalunya-born artist Joan Miró will be up for auction at Christie's in London later this month with a price tag starting at €10.5 million.
Peinture ('Painting'), from 1925 carries an eight-figure sum, but probably isn't Joan Miró's most valuable work (photo: Christie's)
Miró, who was nearly 91 – and still creating his provocative, eye-catching sculptures – when he died on Christmas Day in 1983 spent long years living in Paris from the 1920s, during which his surrealist, highly-coloured works took on a more 'dreamlike' feel.
One of these is the 1925 piece, Peinture – literally, 'Painting' (a title Miró gave several of his works) – which has been valued at between £9 and £14m (€10.5 to €16.4m).
Goutte d'Eau sur la Neige Rose ('Drop of Water on the Pink Snow'), 1968, reflects Miró's new-found interest in poetry and Japanese painting (photo: WikiArt)
In it, Miró started out with a 'muddy' background and filled it with a multitude of shapes and enigmatic symbols, mostly in black but with splashes of red and yellow and a smattering of blue, which 'came into his head automatically' and 'without any radical intervening thoughts', according to art historians at Christie's.
Peinture forms part of a lot of five Miró works – although they will be auctioned separately – some of them valued at more than €3.5m.
One of the most expensive of these is Goutte d'Eau sur la Neige Rose ('Drop of Water on Pink Snow'), from 1968 and, in fact, highly characteristic of Miró's works in the 1960s, when his paintings were heavily influenced by poetry and Japanese art.
The other three due to go under hammer on the same day – March 23 – are Tête ('Head'), from 1974; Projet d'Illustration d'un Livre (Handmade Proverbs) ('Book Illustration Project'), from 1970, and Le Piège ('The Trap'), from 1924.
Miró joins his compatriot Salvador Dalí at Christie's on March 23, its 20th edition of a session specialising in surrealist art, which will also feature other huge names in the movement including René Magritte, Max Ernst and Francis Picabia.
According to expert Olivier Camu at Christie's, three of the works up for bid – by Miró, Ernst and Magaritte – are of 'museum quality' and 'not just new on the market, but were each very significant for the artists personally'.
You didn't know it, but you pass Miró's – and Dalí's – most famous works every day
Few mere mortals would have the cash available to place a realistic bid on any of the Miró pictures seeking new owners at Christie's, and it could be that even if you live or spend a lot of time in Spain, you are not familiar with his work unless you have visited the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, one of the country's second-largest city's major tourism attractions.
But without realising it, you'll have seen one of his most famous works on at least a handful of occasions, and you probably pass another of his best-known pieces every day on your local high street.
And both of these are worth multiple times the asking prices for even the 1925 Peinture, probably even billions.
There's also a world-renowned Dalí work which is worth billions, but which you will have passed daily in your nearest corner shop, supermarket or petrol station.
So, how can you get your hands on the most iconic works of some of the biggest artists in Spain's history without spending enough to bankrupt Inditex?
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com