Collector's Guide to Joan Miró

The French writer Michel Leiris described Miró's work as "a kaleidoscopic game of infinite possibilities." Each of his prints is a little self-contained world. He took five-hundred years of tradition and turned it into something completely new and original. Initially a surrealist, Miró's work become broadly more abstract as he aged. This development is traced vividly across his body of prints.

Miró had a methodical approach to his work that was well suited to printmaking. His activities were dominated by three main techniques: intaglio (such as drypoint and etching), lithography, and carborundum. His first prints were produced in 1930 for Tristan Tzara’s book of poems L’arbre des Voyageurs. During the following decade he forged a close working relationship with Roger Lacourière, the master printer who also printed Picasso’s legendary Vollard Suite. In the 1940s he worked with Stanley William Hayter in New York. Hayter’s experiments with intaglio techniques included the revolutionary “viscosity printing” method, in which multiple colours were combined on a single printing plate.

Soon after, he was encouraged by his Parisian dealer Aimé Maeght to explore lithography. Thus began a career-defining passion that would result in the production of over 1200 original prints before Miró’s death in 1983. Lithography was a natural fit for Miró’s increasingly abstract and calligraphic style.

His final technical innovation came in the late 1960s, when he was introduced to the carborundum technique. This involved applying a thick paste of silicon carbide to a printing plate and inking the surface. When printed it produces a rich, textured mark on the paper that is close to a brushstroke in character. Miró created at least 72 prints using this technique and described them as “images to rival any painting”.

In terms of the quality and quantity of his work, Miró ranks alongside Picasso and Warhol as one of the 20th century's greatest printmakers. As an investment, Miró's art has proven to be a wise choice, with his paintings and prints consistently appreciating in value over time. The record price achieved for one of his paintings at auction is $36.9 million, In contrast, his most expensive print – Equinoxe (1967) – usually attracts a price tag of around £100,000. However, most of Miró's prints can be acquired for less than £10,000, representing fantastic value and an accessible entry point to the career of one of the most popular and exciting artists in the contemporary art market. The scope of his ingenuity means that there is something for everybody in his oeuvre. We highly recommend his prints to our clients for their desirability and the exuberance they bring to any space.