Dancer (Joan Miro, Surrealism)

Dancer

Miro's Dancer is one of his sparsest but at the same time most poetic pictures. Having primed the canvas with brown paint, the artist then applied a layer of ultramarine blue in such a way that the brown colour was still visible in the form of an edge. The blue layer was added in broad, rapid movements, leaving spots and traces of the paintbrush to indicate the sweeping movements of the painter's hand.

Movement is also indicated by the blue lines that have been added to the blue surface on the left. There are dotted circles which add up to a surging spiral, and the impression of movement is further enhanced by a wavy line at the top. The direction of the dance is indicated by a straight, uninterrupted top-to-bottom line. The Dancer herself, on the right, has been indicated quite wittily: a ball-shaped head, modelled in light and dark shades, linked by a thin line to a flashy, red heart, with symbolic genitals attached to its tip. The whirling feet seem like stylized notes and may have a musical meaning.

Back to the Artist Joan Miro

Miro's Other Works

The Farm

The Tilled Field

Harlequin's Carnival

Catalan Landscape