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Women Dreaming of Escape

Artist/Maker (Spanish, 1893–1983)
Date1942
MediumPastel, gouache, and crayon on pulpboard
DimensionsImage/Sheet: 26 7/8 × 17 5/8 in. (68.3 × 44.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Joseph and Enid Bissett
Object number1964.29
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Estate of Joan Miró / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Socity (ARS), New York, NYMore Information
Between 1942 and 1944, during World War II when materials were scarce, Joan Miró worked solely on paper. This drawing, dated December 1, 1942, the artist prepared by rubbing pastel onto pulpboard in faint aureoles of color. This manner was reminiscent of his preparation of the earlier Constellations series of 1940 and 1941, which have crisply delineated biomorphic and cosmological forms in complex, all-over compositions. As he stated in his note-book, he wanted to “provoke accidents,” not “do pastels.” After rubbing pastel into the ground, he reacted to any “accidents” of its surface by carefully creating witty, dream-like drawings—here showing women, children, and an escape ladder, rendered in crayon.
Exhibition History
The Child's Eye: From Klee to Disney
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 5, 1981 - August 1, 1981 )
Love, Glory and Guns: Images of Peace and War from the Permanent Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (October 3, 1986 - November 16, 1986 )
Work in Focus: Courbet's "Young Bather" and the Female Nude from Academic to Abstract
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 1, 1994 - June 19, 1994 )
Dreams and Visions: Expressing the Inexplicable
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 9, 1997 - October 19, 1997 )
Out of Line: Drawings from the Allen from the Twentieth Century and Beyond
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 1, 2009 - December 23, 2009 )
Maidenform to Modernism: The Bissett Collection
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 15, 2017 - May 27, 2018 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary