Maravillas con Variaciones Acrósticas en el Jardín de Miró

Joan Miró befriended several avant-garde writers in Paris in the 1920s; literary sources would inspire his works throughout the next several decades. According to Patrick Cramer [who has written books about the artist], Miró illustrated over 260 books, catalogues, and albums in his lifetime. In fact, the first poems Miró ever created were used to illustrate L’Arbre des Voyageurs, a book of poems by Tristan Tzara in 1930. “In no way should any of the artist’s prints be considered ‘mere illustrations’ for a given text or book... They were parallel creations: fine works of art in their own right”, says Murray Macaulay, head of Prints at Christie’s London. 

Maravillas con Variaciones Acrósticas en el Jardín de Miró is one such book; it featured Miró’s artwork alongside poems [dedicated to Miró] by the famous Spanish poet Rafael Alberti. Miró’s visuals combine his love of nature with a playful, abstract imagination, bringing to life a garden where little “Maravillas” (“Wonders” or “Marvels”) exist amongst the butterflies and flowers. “Giving equal importance to bug, bird, and person, Miró depicts bodies represented and broken down into their most basic shapes.” (Miró: The Experience of Seeing, Educator Resource Guide, Seattle Art Museum, 2014, at page 11.)

The book was published in 1975 by renowned printer Ediciones Polígrafa and contains 22 lithographs.