We are delighted to share a splendid selection of rare works made by Miró in 1947 at Atelier 17 in New York City. Miró was visiting the USA to oversee the installation of a large, spectacular mural for a restaurant in The Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio. The mural is now on permanent display at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
While in New York, Miró made his way to Atelier 17 where he joined a group of artists investigating a method for printing the fluid handwriting evident in the works of Romantic artist and poet, William Blake (British 1857-1827). Stanley William Hayter borrowed a fragment of one of Blake’s copper plates from the collection of Lessing Rosenwald. Four methods of inking the plate were attempted and Miró made a group of plates to print as well. We have pairs of impressions showing relief and intaglio versions from the same plates and a few with color counter-proofs as the group work to discover Blake’s lost technique. Fred Becker and Gabor Peterdi assisted Hayter and Miró as they worked to decipher Blake’s mystery and in the meanwhile advanced their own methods at this important moment in 20th century print making history. Each work in the group is dated and annotated “New York” and “pour Hayter.” Examples of the test prints from the Blake plate were preserved as well. All have remained in Hayter’s collection these 70 years and we are proud to offer them.
