Ready for Anything
Artist: Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983)
Publisher: Gérald Cramer, Geneva, 1958
Printer: text: Fequet and Baudier, Paris, woodcuts: Atelier Lacourière and Frélaut, Paris (Jacques Frélaut, Jamie Herrera), typography: Fon
Author: Paul Éluard (French, 1895-1952)
Date: 1958
Dimensions:
box: 13 11/16 x 10 5/8 x 3 1/8 in. (347 x 270 x 80 mm);
chemise: 14 7/16 x 10 1/2 x 2 11/16 in. (366 x 266 x 69 mm);
book: 13 1/8 x 10 1/4 in. (334 x 261 mm);
page: 12 11/16 x 10 1/16 in. (322 x 256 mm)
Portfolio: H: 13 1/8 (334 mm); W: 10 1/4 in. (261 mm); Depth: 7/8 in. (23 mm).
Medium: book with woodcuts, collagraph, and collage
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss
Object number: 1984.783
Label Text:Regarded as "one of the most triumphant feats of book illustration in over a century,” À toute épreuve required dedication and time to produce. Miró spent 10 years creating the 233 woodblocks for the illustrations (combined to make 79 images) to accompany Paul Éluard's poetry. From the final stages of the project in the late 1940s, there were myriad considerations which publisher Gérard Cramer, Miró, and Éluard (until his death in 1952) carefully worked out together: the type size, the color if ink, and the layout on each double-page spread. In À toute épreuve (loosely translated "Ready for anything"), each page presents a delightfully imaginative intermingling of words and image. The text has explores themes of love, creation, and the narrator's fluctuating moods, which run the gamut from happiness to despair and isolation. Miró used Éluard's words as a springboard to a pictorial realm of captivating forms.
DescriptionBook with 80 woodcuts, some with collagraph, some with collage, plus and additional suite of 80 woodcuts.
Not on view
In Collection(s)