Plate (page 59) from Parler seul (Speaking Alone)
Joan Miró
Spanish, 1893–1983
1948–50, published 1950
A lithograph plate from Joan Miró’s illustrated book Parler seul that pairs printed French poetry with playful, biomorphic marks to evoke the work’s dreamlike, conversational mood.
The spread reads like a staged exchange—the left page holds neat lines of verse above bold, gestural black shapes that look like calligraphic figures, while the right page presents a textured grey, horned form topped by a bright red blot and a blue star, with tiny colorful dots and thin, childlike lines suggesting flowers and legs, making the abstraction feel lively and whimsical.
Created around 1950, the plate shows Miró’s fusion of Surrealist automatism and modern printmaking, treating the artist’s book as an experimental space where image and text collaborate and helping expand how lithography and books could function as independent works of art.
Medium
Lithograph from an illustrated book with seventy-two lithographs (including variants on folder and slipcase) and one lithographed collage (wrapper front)
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 13 3/4 × 9 3/4" (35 × 24.7 cm); page: 14 7/8 × 11 3/16" (37.8 × 28.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
939.1964.34
Palette
Exhibitions
