Joan Miro’s Mallorca Series

Graphic work from the BBVA Collection in Bilbao

Miro's Mallorca Series (1973) reveals different stages of the engraving process

As part of the centenary celebrating the publication of Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, the BBVA Collection in Bilbao has opened ‘Surrealisms’, showing work by more than 50 artists exploring dreams and the subconscious.

Included in the exhibition are prints from Salvador Dalí’s series ‘La conquête du cosmos’, Yves Tanguy’s ‘La lumière de l‘ombre’, and ‘Serie Mallorca’ by Joan Miró.

Miró’s Mallorca Series, made in 1973, shows one of ten complete folders in the world, revealing the mechanics of the engraving process.

The signed pieces are considered complete engravings in their own right

Each folder contains 36 pieces with impressions in black only, the colour engraving, the joint print, and the negative of the image.

Their importance lies in Miró printing the colour and black states separately – as is customary in chalcography – but by numbering and signing them individually Miró granted them the status of complete engravings in their own right.

The series is regarded as outstanding due to its statued purpose of independently showing the various stages of the engraving process, allowing us to further understand the complexity of the medium and the artist’s own visual language.

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Surrealisms – Graphic Work of the BBVA Collection, at the Palacio de San Nicolás, Bilbao