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 "one of the most triumphant feats of book illustration in over a century." Miró spent ten years creating the 233 woodblocks for the illustrations (combined to make 79 images) to accompany Eluard's poetry. From the final stages of the project in the late 1940s, there were myriad considerations which Cramer, Miró, and Eluard (until he died) carefully worked out together: the size of type, the color if ink, and the layout on each double-page spread. In A TOUTE EPREUVE (loosely translated "Ready for any thing"), each page presents a delightfully imaginative intermingling of words and image. The text has three sections ("Universe-Solitude", "Confections" and "Girls in Love") which explores themes of love, creation, and the narrator's fluctuating moods, which run the gamut from happiness to despair and isolation. Miró used Eluard'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)