Joan Miro - The Red Sun 19.5 x 27.5

• Artist: Joan Miró (1893–1983)
• Original Title: Le Soleil rouge
• Year Created: 1948
• Medium & Support: Oil on canvas
• Original Dimensions: 36 1/8 × 28 1/8 in. (91.8 × 71.4 cm)
• Current Location: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (Acquired in 1951, Object ID: 1365)
• Inscriptions: Inscribed on the reverse: “Miró / 1948 / LE SOLEIL ROUGE”

Artistic Context & Analysis

1. Surrealist Biomorphic Vocabulary:
• Painted in 1948, The Red Sun belongs to Miró’s post–World War II period, when his mature visual language of primary colors, cosmic symbolism, and calligraphic black glyphs had fully crystalized.
• The composition reduces a cosmic landscape to symbolic ideograms: a bold, flat vermilion disk (the sun) hovering against an atmospheric blue wash, surrounded by biomorphic creatures, eye motifs, and amorphous floating entities.
2. Dialog with Abstract Expressionism:
• Following his 1947 trip to New York—where he created a mural for the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati and interacted with the New York School (including Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Alexander Calder)—Miró returned to Europe with renewed interest in raw material experimentation, textured painterly grounds, and gestural paint splatters.
3. Color & Form Dynamics:
• The contrast between the deep, mottled black-and-grey outer ground and the glowing cerulean central aperture creates depth. The geometric personage on the lower right, rendered with sharp planes of black, white, red, and yellow, provides a grounding architectural tension against the organic, free-form splashes of green and yellow.

Poster & Publication Specifications (From Your Copy)

• Bottom Text Reference: JOAN MIRÓ: THE RED SUN - ARTIST: JOAN MIRÓ - © 1993 PRO-LITTERIS, ZURICH / THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION - VERKERKE REPRODUKTIES ... PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
• Publisher: Verkerke Reprodukties (Ede, Netherlands)
• Licensing / Copyright: © 1993 ProLitteris, Zurich / The Phillips Collection
• Print Sheet Size: 19.5 × 27.5 inches (~50 × 70 cm format)
• Printing Technique: High-grade offset lithograph on coated poster stock

Cataloging & Listing Verification Checklist

• [ ] Listing Title Format: Joan Miro The Red Sun 1948 Vintage Exhibition Poster 1993 Verkerke Deadstock Lithograph 19.5x27.5
• [ ] Key Attributes:
• Artist: Joan Miró
• Title: The Red Sun (Le Soleil Rouge), 1948
• Publisher / Year: Verkerke Reprodukties, 1993
• Dimensions: 19.5" × 27.5"