The Spanish Playing Cards

Joan Miró's first encounter with the Cubist works of Picasso and Braque in 1919 inspired a group of still lifes - including Spanish Playing Cards - that he executed in 1920. Here, the stylized realism of Miró's previous work combined with the geometric faceting of synthetic Cubism. The densely painted objects retain their identity, but the surrounding space is fractured into patterned lines and angles. Miró continued working in this manner until 1924, when he joined the Surrealist movement.