Personnages Oiseaux

Description

Miró created this mural for the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University in Kansas. It ranks among his largest two-dimensional works, a project he started at age 79 and completed at 85. Though fabrication wrapped up in 1977, Miró only considered it finished after installation. This glass mosaic was a first for the artist; he intended to make more but died before he could.

He planned to attend the 1978 dedication but fell in his studio in Palma, Majorca, and could not make the trip. The mural covers the museum’s entire south wall, measuring 28 feet by 52 feet, and consists of one million pieces of marble and Venetian glass mounted on specially treated wood, which is attached to the concrete wall via an aluminum grid. Miró donated the work; donor groups covered the costs of its fabrication by Ateliers Loire of Chartres, France, and its installation.

The Ulrich Museum also owned the 5 ½-foot by 12-foot oil-on-canvas maquette for the mural but later sold it to create a fund for acquisitions and any needed repairs. An artisan at Ateliers Loire assembled the entire mural using Miró’s maquette as a guide. Produced under Miró’s personal direction and finished in 1977, the 80 panels were shipped to Wichita State and installed on the museum’s façade in 1978. The mural stands as a unique late work: one of Miró’s largest two-dimensional pieces in North America and his only work in this medium.