Untitled [plate XXXI]

This print, Untitled [plate XXXI], was made by Joan Miró using some kind of printmaking technique. I like the way Miró makes a world out of next to nothing. Look at the blue shape, like a fat exclamation point, it sits on the page like a big idea. The way the ink is mottled and broken suggests to me an intuitive process of building up marks to find a form. And then that green arch, interrupted by stripes, has this great tension between flatness and depth. Miró reminds me a lot of Paul Klee, another artist who could find infinite potential in a simple line, smudge or color. It’s like they both knew that art isn't about perfectly rendering the world, but about discovering new ways of seeing and feeling it.