The Invisible Miró

Twenty visions of a visionary brought to light by Nils Burwitz.
20 texts written by friends of Joan Miró, writers, poets, and critics, accompanied by 20 graphic works by Nils Burwitz
The boxed, bibliophile set of „The Invisible Miró“ is an homage to Burwitz’s spiritual mentor, Joan Miró. After Miró’s death in 1983, Nils Burwitz discovered an as yet unpublished graffito by the artist. It was a charcoal drawing on the plaster wall of his studio, „Son Boter“, with the words ‚THE ARTIST WITH HIS TRUE PALETTE‘ written next to it. These words and this drawing inspired Burwitz to interview some of Miró’s friends and contemporaries with a view to revealing unknown and more personal facets of the enigma Miró. The result is this bibliophile edition of 20 very personal texts, in prose and in poetry, combined with 20 graphics. Together, they illuminate Miró the man, as well as to the driving force behind his work.

This bibliophile edition is composed of 20 original graphics by Nils Burwitz (etching, aquatint, drypoint and woodcuts), as well as 20 pages of texts, prose and poetry by PIERRE RESTANY, BASILIO BALTASAR, RAFAEL SANTOS TORROELLA, CESÁREO RODRÍGUEZ AGUILERA, GEORGES RAILLARD, ROBERT S. LUBAR, VICENTE AGUILERA CERNI, RAFAEL ALBERTI, FRANCISCO CATALÁ ROCA, JOSÉ CORREDOR MATHEOS, RAIMON, CAMILO JOSÉ CELA, JAUME POMAR, GABRIEL JANER MANILA, MERCÈ PRAT, MATÍAS VALLÉS, PERE SERRA, ROBERT GRAVES, MARIA LLUÏSA BORRÀS and CAMILO JOSÉ CELA CONDE. Most of the essays were commissioned specifically for this edition, except for the highlights from longer texts by Raillard, Cerni, Cela, Serra and the poems of Alberti, Graves and Raimon.

The graphics were printed in the workshop of Libra Press, Valldemossa, (Mallorca, Spain) and in the workshop of Torculari in Algaida, (Mallorca, Spain) by JULIO LÉON and RICARD PINYOL. The texts were handset in Bembo type together with the caligrams by Nils Burwitz, which were etched by JOAN CANYELLES. TOMÀS GRAVES printed them on a flatbed at the New Seizin Press in Deià, (Mallorca, Spain). The paper, 300g/sqm, was handmade by LLUÍS MORERA in Ca l’Oliver, Sant Quintí de Mediona (Spain). The photo portrait of Joan Miró by VICENÇ MATAS MIRALLES, was reproduced by DIETMAR GUNTER in the heliogravure workshop in Dresden, Germany. The format of the original graphics and the folded sheets of text: 40,5 x 29cm.

The case, format size, 44,5 x 32,5 x 7cm was made by JOSEP ROCAMORA in Barcelona, (Spain). The metalplate, which is sunk into the case-cover, was made by EXAMETAL in Sant Adrià del Besòs, (Spain). Edition: 100 copies, signed and numbered in Arabic numerals. 25 copies are signed and numbered in Roman numerals, I – XXV, hors de commerce. Each boxed-set is accompanied by a separate book, illustrated , signed and numbered (48 pages, edition of 1000), and translated into four languages by SIDNEY BUCKLAND (English), ANTÓNIA M. CALAFAT RIVAS (Catalan), MARINA HÄRTL BURWITZ (German), JAUME POMAR and LUCIA GRAVES (Spanish). All the photographic work is by STEPHEN ROSE.