Untitled [plate LXXV] 1958

This is Untitled [plate LXXV], a print by Joan Miró, but when it was made, I couldn’t tell you. What strikes me about this piece is its color and texture, a kind of wood grain effect, all in red. You know, for an artist associated with surrealism and playful abstraction, this has a really tactile, almost earthy quality to it. The surface isn't smooth; you can almost feel the roughness of the wood. It’s as though Miró wanted us to experience the physicality of the material, not just see an image. Look closely, and you can see how the grain varies, creating areas of light and shadow, density and openness. There's a kind of directness here, something raw and unrefined. Miró's contemporary Antoni Tàpies springs to mind. He used unconventional materials such as marble dust and sand, embedding them into his painting to create abstract surfaces. Both artists make you consider the artwork as a physical object as well as an image.