Paintings on Masonite

Paintings on Masonite is a series of 27 abstract paintings made by Joan Miró using the type of proprietary hardboard known as masonite, just after the Spanish Civil War started on 18 July 1936. These works break with his earlier phase which was known as his wild paintings period. This was a label established to describe the work done during the two years preceding the Civil War, between 1934 and 1936.

Paintings on Masonite
Artist	Joan Miró
Year	1936 (1936)
Type	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite
Dimensions	78 cm × 108 cm (32+1⁄4 in × 40+3⁄4 in)

Description and reviews

Rosa Maria Malet Ph.D, President of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona (1980-2017), compares masonites with the wild paintings immediately preceding, painted on copper and other materials:

On July 18, the civil war is declared. Given this fact, Miró painted witnesses of the facts, but a kind of direct and violent exorcisms, the 27 masonites. What is wild in this series are not representations, but the very act of painting. The monsters are replaced by the painter's direct attack on the canvas that serves as a stimulus. The matter of funds, masonite, it will never be completely hidden. Miró created a mix with casein, black Ripoli, sand, bitumen ... [...] The masonites have the force of a shout.

— Rosa Maria Malet^[1]

The Museum of Modern Art in New York also emphasizes the violence of the technique:

[...] it has long been suggested that these works represent Miró’s response to the emotional and physical turmoil in his homeland, although the artist insisted that they were produced "despite the current events." In these works, narrative is replaced by a heightened emphasis on texture and materials, including oil and enamel paints, casein, tar, sand, and pebbles. Miró sometimes violently attacked his Masonite panels, gouging craters into their fibrous matrix, creating irreversible marks and conveying a sense of raw immediacy.

— MoMA Press^[2]

The works were painted in Mont-roig del Camp^[3] and Barcelona.^[4] Shortly after he finished these paintings, the artist left the country and went back to Paris, in the fall of 1936, where he would stay for four years.

The series

Register	Artwork	Date	Format	Size (cm)	Museum	City	Ref.
	Painting I	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting II	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting III	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting IV	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting V	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting VI	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting VII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting VIII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting IX	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum	Nagasaki	[5]
	Painting X	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XI	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XIII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XIV	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	108 × 78 cm	Fundació Joan Miró	Barcelona	[5][6]
	Painting XV	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Israel Museum	Jerusalem	[5]
	Painting XVI	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XVII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	108 × 78 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XVIII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XIX	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XX	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XXI	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Fundació Joan Miró	Barcelona	[7][8]
	Painting XXII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XXIII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Art Institute of Chicago	Chicago	[5]
	Painting XXIV	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	108 × 78 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XXV	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]
	Painting XXVI	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	London	[5]
	Painting XXVII	Summer of 1936	Oil, tar, sand and casein on masonite	78 × 108 cm	Private collection	ND	[5]

See also

• The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xolotl, a painting on masonite by Frida Kahlo.