Skip to main content

On Joan Miro and Barcelona



There was a good article in yesterday's Guardian Newspaper (UK) about a forthcoming show of Joan Miro's work at the Tate in London.

I remember when I was living in Barcelona, studying for my Fine Art MA, that an extremely pleasant way to spend an afternoon was to do the following: walk through the Barrio Xino and then across to the hill of Montjuic; climb the staircases up to the top of the hill, then walk through the park to the Fundacio Joan Miro; look around the galleries for a while, and then sit in the outdoor cafe, which was in a small courtyard with a fountain in it in a quadrangle formed by the museum buildings. You could sit there for hours, with the sun warming your face, chatting to friends, before maybe walking over and taking the cable car down and across to the other side of the port.

The clip above is from a French film about the great man (thanks to Figaro Magazine). If, like me, you understand some French and Catalan, you'll get what he's saying about his art being rooted in Catalonia. There's also an interview with Antoni Tapies talking about Miro. (Click here to see my Meditation on Antoni Tapies and Barcelona.)

 Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

Popular posts from this blog

Restoring my Printing Press

I've just finished restoring and assembling my large etching press -- a six week process involving lots of rust removal, scrubbing with steel wool, and repainting. Here is a photo of the same kind of press from the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative: And here is a short YouTube video of me testing the press, making sure the motor still works after nearly seven years of lying in storage:

Brancusi in Plastic

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau is showing these columns made from recycled plastic cartons and lids in the window of the Columbia College bookstore on Michigan Avenue. They are a playful homage to Brancusi's "Endless Columns", with a serious environmental message for our times: Image copyright Inhabitat.com and Mary Ellen Croteau Mary Ellen also runs a wonderful experimental art gallery in a window space in west Chicago, called Art on Armitage . I will be exhibiting a mixed media piece there during August 2012.

How to etch a linoleum block

Linoleum as a material for printmaking has been used for nearly a hundred years now. Normally, you cut an image out using special gouges similar to woodcut tools, cutting away the lino around the image you want to print. This is called relief printmaking, because if you look at the block from the side, the material that remains stands up in relief from the backing material. You then roll ink with a brayer over the surface of the block, place paper over it, and either print by hand or run it through a press. You can do complex things this way (for example, reduction linocuts), but the beauty of the process is that it is quick, simple, and direct. Incised lino block, from me.redith.com Etched lino block, from Steve Edwards A few years ago, I saw some prints that were classified as coming from etched linoleum blocks, and I loved the textures I saw in them. In the last few months, I've been trying to use this technique in my own studio, learning about it as one does these d