Naked Woman Climbing a Staircase

Naked Woman Climbing a Staircase (originally in French Femme nue montant l'escalier) is a drawing done with pencil and charcoal on card made by Joan Miró in 1937. It is part of the permanent collection of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona.[1]

Naked Woman Climbing a Staircase
French: Femme nue montant l'escalier, Catalan: Dona nua pujant l'escala
ArtistJoan Miró
Year1937
TypeDrawing
Dimensions78 cm × 55.8 cm (31 in × 22.0 in)
LocationFundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

History
Eadweard Muybridge's Woman Walking Downstairs in The Human Figure in Motion, 1887, work which in turn inspired Marcel Duchamp.

Miró created Naked Woman Climbing a Staircase during the Spanish Civil War. He was living in Paris when he started to attend life drawing classes at the school of the Grande Chaumiere. Miró returned to constructing the human figure to represent the drama that was then taking place in Catalonia. This feeling can be made out in the shapes used to draw this tortured nude woman climbing a staircase.[2] Other works of this period include Still Life with Old Shoe and Aidez l'Espagne.[3]

Description
Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912, by Marcel Duchamp

According to the Joan Miró Foundation, "Miró's despondency brought about by the moral tragedy of the war can be seen in the violent metamorphosis of the figure, in her heavy limbs and in the effort involved in climbing."[4] At the top right is a kind of window or box where light rays can be seen entering the room. The woman is using her right arm to try to grab a ladder – this was a symbol that Miró used in several of his works to represent evasion or escape. The external genitals of the woman are similar to those of the woman in Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement as they are exaggerated in size.[5] This work is said to be related to Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, made by Marcel Duchamp, although here the woman is ascending. The distortion and effort of the figure are interpreted as mirroring the Spanish Civil War.[4] Duchamp's painting was not original; it alluded to the earlier photographs by Eadweard Muybridge[6] which were amongst the first to record animal locomotion. Miró first saw this work by Duchamp in 1912, during the Cubist art exhibition held at Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona.[7][8]

Muybridge's idea of a woman on a staircase caught the imagination of not only Duchamp and Miró but also Miró's contemporary Salvador Dalí who created a homage to Duchamp's painting. His model was also shown ascending the stairs[9] like Miró's subject.

Exhibitions
Start End Exhibition Place City Ref
1964 1964 Tate Gallery London [10]
1964 1964 Kunsthaus Zürich Zurich [10]
20 September 1978 22 January 1979 Dessins de Miró Centre Georges Pompidou París [11]
1 June 1980 31 October 1980 Palacio de Velázquez Madrid
21 November 1986 1 February 1987 Kunsthaus Zürich Zurich [12]
14 February 1987 20 April 1987 Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf [12]
24 November 1988 15 January 1999 Impactes. Joan Miró 1929–1941 Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona [13]
3 February 1989 23 April 1989 Joan Miró: Paintings & Drawings 1929–1941 Whitechapel Gallery London [14]
4 July 1990 14 October 1990 Maeght Foundation Saint-Paul-de-Vence [15]
20 April 1993 30 August 1993 Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona [16]
6 October 1993 11 January 1994 Museum of Modern Art New York [17]
11 February 1995 17 April 1995 Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
12 May 1995 16 July 1995 Kunsthalle Wien Vienna
28 July 1995 22 October 1995 Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea de Verona Verona
26 February 1996 5 May 1996 CCCB Barcelona
7 June 1997 11 November 1997 Miró, ceci est la couleur de mes rêves Fondation Pierre Gianadda Martigny [18]
15 May 1998 30 August 1998 Joan Miró. Creator of new worlds Moderna Museet Stockholm [19]
18 September 1998 10 January 1999 Joan Miró. Creator of new worlds Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Humlebæk [20]
4 July 2000 5 November 2000 Maeght Foundation Saint-Paul-de-Vence
23 October 2001 27 January 2002 Rèquiem per les escales CCCB Barcelona [21]
6 March 2002 24 June 2002 La Révolution surréaliste Centre Georges Pompidou Paris [22]
20 July 2002 24 November 2002 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Düsseldorf
25 November 2004 6 February 2005 Joan Miró. Arquitectura d'un llibre Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona [23]
25 October 2007 27 January 2008 Joan Miró. 1956–1983 Sentiment, emoció i gest Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona [24]
14 April 2011 11 September 2011 Miró. Tate London [25]
15 October 2011 18 March 2011 Miró i l'escala de l'evasió. Tate, Fundació Joan Miró London & Barcelona [26]
6 May 2012 12 August 2012 National Gallery of Art Washington [26]

2011 exhibition

The exhibition L'escala de l'evasió that opened in October 2011 was supported by access to Wikipedia using QRpedia codes that allowed access to visitors in Catalan, English and several other languages.[27]

Notes
  1. "Information about the work at the museum site". 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  2. Works by Joan Miró. Joan Miró Foundation. 1988. Ediciones Polígrafa.
  3. "The Tate Modern discovers the most political Miró". Diario de Mallorca (in Spanish). 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  4. "A New Approach To Joan Miró" (PDF). Joan Miró Foundation. p. 41. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  5. Clavero 2010, p.72-73
  6. Tomkins, Calvin (1996). Duchamp: A Biography. U.S.: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8050-5789-7.
  7. Surrealisme a Catalunya, 1924–1936: de l'amic de les arts llogicofobisme (in Catalan). Polígrafa. 1 August 1988. p. 17. ISBN 978-84-343-0539-7. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  8. Rosa Maria Malet; Joan Miró (1993). Joan Miró. Edicions 62. p. 19. ISBN 978-84-297-3568-0. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  9. Judovitz, Dalia (2010). Drawing on art: Duchamp and company. Minnesota Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780816665297. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  10. Jacques Dupin; Joan Mirâo; Ariane Lelong-Mainaud (2002). Joan Miró: catalogue raisonné : paintings. Daniel Lelong. Retrieved 24 September 2011. cat num 151
  11. cat. núm. 145, repr. p. 70
  12. cat. nº 108 repr
  13. cat. nº 56 repr. p.88
  14. cat. repr.
  15. cat. nº 102, repr. p. 343
  16. cat. nº 147 repr. p.343
  17. cat. repr. p.226
  18. cat. nº 40 repr. p.95
  19. cat. nº 102 repr. p.113
  20. cat. nº 84 repr. p.66
  21. Agustí, Fancelli (25 October 2001). "Óscar Tusquets entona un réquiem emocionado por la escalera". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  22. "La Révolution surréaliste. Fitxa de l'exposició" (PDF) (in French). 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  23. "Joan Miró. Arquitectura d'un llibre". Fundació Joan Miró. 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  24. "Joan Miró. 1956–1983 Sentiment, emoció i gest". Fundació Joan Miró. 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2011.
  25. "Miró i l'escala de l'evasió. Fitxa de l'exposició". 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  26. "Miró i l'escala de l'evasió. Fitxa de l'exposició". Fundació Joan Miró. 2011. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  27. Photo at opening day of the exhibition, 15 October 2011

References
  • Clavero, Jordi.J (2010). Fundació Joan Miró. Foundation's Guide. Barcelona: Polígrafa. ISBN 978-84-343-1242-5.
  • Joan Miró (1988). Obra de Joan Miró: dibuixos, pintura, escultura, ceràmica, tèxtils. Fundació Joan Miró-Centre d'Estudis d'Art Contemporani. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  • Jaques Dupin – Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. Joan Miró. Catalogue raisonné. Drawings I 1901–1937, 2008. Daniel Lelong and Successió Miró
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