id: 141603 accession number: 1965.2.a share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.2.a updated: 2023-08-24 11:35:32.901000 Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair by the Light of the Stars (recto), 1940. Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983). Watercolor and gouache over graphite; sheet: 37.9 x 45.8 cm (14 15/16 x 18 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1965.2.a © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris title: Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair by the Light of the Stars (recto) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1940 creation date earliest: 1940 creation date latest: 1940 current location: creditline: Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art copyright: © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris --- culture: Spain, 20th century technique: Watercolor and gouache over graphite department: Drawings collection: DR - Spanish type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 37.9 x 45.8 cm (14 15/16 x 18 1/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: white wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: Signed, lower left, in black gouache: Miró translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Miró at Recinto del Antiguo Hospital de la Santa Cruz opening date: Miró at Recinto del Antiguo Hospital de la Santa Cruz. Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain. title: Miró by Fondation Maeght opening date: Miró by Fondation Maeght. Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. title: Year in Review: 1965 opening date: 1965-10-27T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965). title: Fifty Years of Modern Art opening date: 1966-06-15T04:00:00 Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966). title: Exposition Miro opening date: 1968-07-23T04:00:00 Exposition Miro. Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France (organizer) (July 23-September 30, 1968). title: The Spirit of Surrealism opening date: 1979-10-03T04:00:00 The Spirit of Surrealism. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 3-November 25, 1979). title: Miró in America opening date: 1982-04-21T05:00:00 Miró in America. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (organizer) (April 21-June 27, 1982). title: Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960 opening date: 1987-09-16T04:00:00 Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). title: Joan Miró: Campo de estrellas opening date: 1993-01-20T05:00:00 Joan Miró: Campo de estrellas. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (January 20, 1990-March 22, 1993). title: Joan Miró opening date: 1993-10-17T04:00:00 Joan Miró. Museum of Modern Art, NY (organizer) (October 17, 1993-January 11, 1994). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). title: The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-06-09T00:00:00 The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). title: Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape opening date: 2011-04-14T00:00:00 Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape. Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (April 14-September 11, 2011). title: Miró: The Constellations opening date: 2017-04-20T04:00:00 Miró: The Constellations. Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (organizer) (April 20-May 27, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Joan Miró: Constellations. Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York and Paris (1959). * Joan Miró: Ceramics 1944, Tempera Paintings 1940 to 1941, Lithographs 1944. Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (1945). --- PROVENANCE [E. V. Thaw & Co., Inc., New York]. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This drawing was published in book alongside the other works from Joan Miro's "Constellations" series, accompanied by poems written by André Breton. digital description: This drawing belongs to a group of 23 works made by Joan Miro between January 1940 and September 1941, which he called "Constellations." All were made in Normandy, where the artist had retreated from the Spanish civil war. Miro juxtaposed blurry layers of watercolor in earthy tones with neatly linear lines in black ink and shapes in white gouache to develop his own language of symbols that suggested, in his words, "the night, music, and the stars." The fifth in the series, this drawing is dominated by a vague figural form at center, who draws a comb through her hair while holding a mirror through which shines the moon and a star. The allover abstract composition was a major influence on later artists, following a 1945 exhibition in New York. wall description: Miro was a preeminent figure in the history of abstraction. This watercolor is characteristic of his compositions of the 1930's and 1940's that are populated by fantastic shapes suggesting living organisms. Between January 1940 and September 1941, Miró made a series of 23 works in gouache (opaque watercolor) now known as the Constellation series. These drawings are universally lauded as one of his greatest achievements. The artist completed them in several locations, from Varengeville, France, to Majorca and Montroig in southern Spain. The works represented his conscious withdrawal into himself in light of civil war in Spain and the Nazi threat in Europe. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 199 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n223 Henning, Edward B. "Joan Miró: Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair by the Light of the Stars." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55 (1968): 71-77. page number: Mentioned: pp. 71-77; Reproduced: pp. 74-75 url: Miró. Exh. Cat. Saint-Paul-de-Vence: Fondation Maeght, 1968. page number: Mentioned: no. 38 url: Miró. Exh. Cat. Barcelona: Recinto del Antiguo Hospital de la Santa Cruz, 1968. page number: Mentioned: p. 61, no. 42 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 199 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n223 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 248 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n268 Rose, Barbara. Miró in America. Exh. Cat. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982. page number: Mentioned: p. 4 url: Rolnik, Marc. Miró's Constellations: The Facsimile Edition of 1959. Exh. Cat. Purchase, NY: Neuberger Muesum, State University of New York at Purchase, 1983 page number: Mentioned: p. 3; Reproduced: p. 5 url: Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. page number: Mentioned: p. 79, no. 38; Reproduced: p. 80, plate VII url: Joan Miró Campo de Estrellas. Exh. Cat. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 1993. page number: Mentioned: pp. 114, 153, no. 65; Reproduced: p. 114 url: Lanchner, Carolyn. Joan Miró. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1993. page number: Mentioned: p. 417, no. 160; Reproduced: p. 242 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: P. 264-265, 298; Reproduced: P. 265, cat. no. 112 url: --- IMAGES