Miró, Joan (1933). The Painting [oil on canvas]. Loula D. Lasker Bequest/The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

I personally find this painting unsatisfying and toneless. Beyond the many formal statements that can be made, there’s not much going on. A field of biomorphic shapes, a ground of textures. I am honestly trying to appreciate it on its terms, however. | 

The subject of this work is a series of biomorphic shapes and how they change as they interact. Deducing a message from this work, beyond the equivalencies that are created (and the confusion they cause), is difficult for me. This work seems to be microscopic in scale, like we are watching cell-sized organisms interact. Oil on canvas.

Shape and texture are the primary elements used in this work. Where the shapes are hollowed out, the shapes become lines. Color is used in two different formats. Space is quite shallow because of the decorative treatment of the shapes and because two layers (field and ground) are used. This sense of depth is supported by how the elements change where interpenetration occurs.This is an asymmetrically balanced work, but certainly on the “stable” side of asymmetry.

Simple, flat, biomorphic shapes predominate. Moments of eye-catching contrast occur where pure white and red appear; there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how the figures change when they come into contact, suggesting they are different even if their basic appearance is not. The somewhat square figures that blend into each other in the background clash seamlessly against the organic and crisp nature of the subject elements.

The shapes seem to be interacting with each other, somewhat as if they were swimming around each other. Where currents seem to swell laterally and upward on the lower portion of the canvas, U-shaped figures resist this direction, and in total keep motion within the framework. The picture frame mimics the shape and proportions of the background blocks. 

This work uses purely abstract shapes to create the impression of slowly interacting organisms to great effect. The vague, dense background supports the fluid character of this work. It is not balanced in terms of value; overall it has a dense tone, even with the pure splashes added.