Joan Miró’s Ubu aux Baléares is a luminous example of the artist’s late graphic work, bringing together his unmistakable visual language—playful, instinctive, and subversive. Created in 1971 as a series of 23 original color lithographs, the project reimagines the absurdist world of Alfred Jarry’s "Ubu Roi" against the sun-drenched, surreal landscape of the Balearic Islands, where Miró lived and worked.
Each composition in the series balances spontaneity with control, using Miró’s signature elements: floating biomorphic forms, bold calligraphic lines, and punctuating bursts of color. The result is a body of work that feels both ancient and modern—evoking cave paintings, graffiti, constellations, and subconscious visions all at once.
Despite their minimalist appearance, these lithographs resonate with rich subtext. They oscillate between the comic and the cryptic, the grotesque and the poetic—drawing the viewer into a visual narrative that unfolds without words. As with much of Miró’s printmaking, there is a deep musicality in the rhythm of his forms: each line seems to dance, each shape hums with quiet energy.
Printed by the renowned Atelier Mourlot and published by Tériade—both longtime collaborators of the greatest 20th-century modernists—the Ubu aux Baléares suite represents a high point in Miró’s mature style. It distills a lifetime of invention into visual haiku: concise, vivid, and entirely Miró.
Original Lithograph
Spain
Printed by Mourlot in Paris
Good condition
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