Woman with Blond Armpit Combing Her Hair by the Light of the Stars (recto)

1940

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 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. This drawing was published in book alongside the other works from Joan Miro's "Constellations" series, accompanied by poems written by André Breton.