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7.15.2011

Mir??, Mir?? on the Wall...

On Wednesday I took a well deserved break from unpacking/sorting of my new studio space (photos to come soon) and took myself off to meet L at Tate Modern to have a stroll about the exhibitions and have a good old chin wag.  At this point I should admit that to proficient exhibition goers I may seem at best uninterested in the masterpieces on the wall, but I prefer to let the pieces grab my attention rather than stare intently at each one. I also think having membership makes one somewhat blas?? about the whole experience, but that in an entirely different matter.

L and I were having a lovely wander around and about talking about life and jobs and dallying into a bit of gossip here and there. I must say I did feel rather bad that I was dragging her around a museum on her day off from working...at a museum, but luckily for us there weren't too many kids around and no school parties.  We would occasionally stop and go back to look at pieces that we had past on the wall, discussing how they were framed, whether we liked them and how many prints we were going to buy at the end. (We were very restrained in our purchasing, we have a habit of picking out the pieces that aren't made into prints, typical us!)

It was a really lovely day, apart from the bleak weather.  

Having come back and mulled it over, thinking about my new collections and looking at Mir??'s work, I have realised how exciting his work is to somebody fascinated by colour, even those works to the uninitiated art historian or art lover, that we remark 'it's just a coloured line on a background' as a textile designer the use of colour and the proportion of colour and subsequent created textures suddenly become incredibly inspiring.  

The triptych Hope of a Condemned Man I,II,III



Joan Mir?? (1893-1983), Hope of a Condemned Man I-II-III, 1973, Triptych, Photograph: Successi?? Mir??/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2011.

With the tiny splashes of colours hidden within the splashes of black and the texture of the brush marks in the coloured, for want of a better word, splodges (I'm sorry) agains the the stronger, smoother yet powerful line of the black, I start to imagine stitches and printing technques, not to recreate the wrks of Mir??, but to allow myself to be inspired by his work.

Another of the stand outs for me in terms of use of colour is this, Painting, 1927. The vivid blue with the chalk white and tiny flashes of yellow and red, the proportions for fashion textiles would be extraordinary. Each colour brings to mind a different texture of fabric and use of stitch to create the chalky feeling of the white, the almost sandwashed silken feel of the blue, with satin stitched areas of the red and yellow, given them a sheen against the blue.







Joan Mir?? (1893-1983), Painting (Peinture), 1927, Tate Collection, ?? Successi?? Mir??/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2002.


I have written for long enough about this, but just to say, even if you don't 'get' the paintings (I don't really go in for reading about them or listening to an audio guide) but want to be immersed in a world of colour Mir?? is a good place to do it. Take a friend, have a natter, plan a nice lunch after and let you eye guide you to what you want to look at. L and I loved it, and took care to go back to the painting we wanted to look at more closely, I'm sure we are committing some unwritten rule about visiting exhibitions, but it was such a lovely relaxing, yet cultural interlude.










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