Joan Miro: Lapidari (Signed by Joan Miro)”Llibre de les propietats de les pedres” (Lapidary) “Book of the Property of Stones”)

Limited edition, no 25 of 130 copies on velin d’Arches signed by Miro, of a total edition of 145 copies.

The complete set of 24 prints including 12 etching and aquatints in colours and 12 etchings in black, on 12 sheets of Arches paper, the full sheets, folded (as issued), with colophon, title page, texts, and original linen-covered portfolio with printed spine and semi-precious stone.

Jacques Dupin wrote in the last volume of the artist’s catalogue raisonné of gravures: ‘Lapidari’ is a large book: 24 engravings respond to 12 descriptions of stones, taken from anonymous 15th-century Catalan authors, selected and prefaced by Pere Gimferrer, a major Catalan poet who has also written a number of books on Miró and Tapiès. Twelve stones chosen, the inscription of their names already an invitation to engrave: Berril, Calsedonia, Estopaci, Balays… Miró was taken by the number twelve and chose to celebrate each stone with two engravings facing each other. The left page has thick, powerful and spare graphic quality; the right page, a drawing composed of quivering lines on a background animated by smudges and scrapes like claw marks. Vaporous disks released into the air give the illusion of a third dimension. What is retained from the stone is its simplicity, its opposition to the earth, its roughness and its weight. The book carries the subtitle ‘The Book of the Properties of Stones’, a fine definition of Miró’s last work. Jacques Dupin, Miró Engraver IV 1976-1983, Daniel Lelong éditeur, Paris, p. 14.