Prints Collection

Joan Miró

Makemono box

Spanish, 1893-1983
Makemono box
1956
oak, lid incised and painted (outside) and lacquered and painted (inside)
1965.5.2

22 3/4 x 5 5/8 x 3 1/2 inches

Thirty feet long and 16 inches wide, this Japanese-inspired Makemono is printed with designs from Joan Miró’s original carved wood and etched metal blocks. Miro was influenced by travel to Japan in 1966 and 1969, leading to a simplification his forms. Biomorphic characters are engaged in an indecipherable drama as the artist has employed a personal symbolic language. Specially woven raw Canton silk was impressed with lustrous colored inks. Bright, joyful colors and calligraphic forms provide a narrative meant to be read from left to right as the scroll unfolds. Execution of the screen was a five-year long collaboration with French printer Aime Maeght, which culminated in 1956 with an edition of 50 of the “rolled up thing in a box” (emakimono in Japanese). David and Carmen Kreeger purchased number 20 in 1965.