Kunstsammlung NRW
Bibliothekarin Marimba Williamson mit einigen Büchern, die den Besuchern der Miró-Ausstellung zum Blättern und Lesen zur Verfügung stehen. Alle Fotos: Kunstsammlung
making of

A Life with Books: Insights into Joan Miró's Library

Three questions for
Marimba Williamson, librarian of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Joan Miró (1893-1983) and Marimba Williamson share something in common: a love of literature. Over the past year, Williamson – who is the librarian at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen – accepted a very special challenge, one she has met with passionate enthusiasm: playing a major role in the Miró exhibition currently at the K20 am Grabbeplatz (Miró: Painting As Poetry, June 13 – Sept 27) is Joan Miró’s personal library; circa 120 books have been integrated into the presentation, and a reading corner invites visitors to browse.

For #32, Marimba Williamson – who selected the books jointly with the curators, procured them, and prepared them for display in the K20 – answers three questions about the artist’s reading habits.

#32: A portion of Mirós’ personal library has been re-created for the exhibition. How did you achieve this? What is being shown in Düsseldorf?

Marimba Williamson: I began, of course, by considering Miró’s as an individual: what literature interested him? What did he read – and why? Were these literary interests expressed in his art, and if so, how?

Since the exhibition includes a large selection of artist’s books produced by Miró in collaboration with leading writers, publishers, and printers of his time, we quickly realized that we must also consider the question of his literary interests and his personal library. As a result, we decided to devote greater space to this area of his life and creative achievement.

In selecting books in order to re-create his personal library on a small scale, I had the opportunity to visit Miró’s library in the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona and in Palma, in the Successió Miró. At first glance, it seems relatively small, upon closer inspection, it appears as a mirror of its time. It was Miró’s works themselves that oriented the acquisition of books. Visitors to the exhibition will quickly notice that a few of the books which are either visible in the display cases, or are instead accessible in the re-created library, also appear in his works.

During preparations, I attempted to acquire books that were directly related to the theme of the exhibition. The result was a selection of approximately 120 volumes; many of them served Miró as “models” and as inspiration for his paintings, and in particular for his artist’s books.

#32: The “artist’s books” in our exhibition are precious treasures, and themselves contain small works of art. What role is played in these books by drawings and graphics? Why was Miró so fascinated by them?

Marimba Williamson: The artist’s books are incredible! When you think of artist’s books, it is those of Matisse and Picasso that come to mind. But Miró’s “publications” are always the result of interactions with the respective author and the text. His drawings, etchings, etc. are more than mere illustrations, they present the texts in a different medium, and are often extensions and interpretations of them. As an example, I would recommend Alfred Jarry’s & Joan Miró’s Suite pour Ubu Roi (1966), or Miró’s and Tristan Tzara’s L’Antitête” (1949), a well-known book. Miró developed a kind of “symbolic language.” The literary scholar Laetitia Rimpau writes about this strikingly in her contribution to the catalog.

Incidentally, my favorites among the artist’s books are L’Antitête, Parler Seul, and Càntic del Sol. But there are quite a few wonderful volumes!

#32: Be candid: alongside the artist’s books and exhibition catalogs, Miró also accumulated some light fiction. Is it true that he enjoyed reading crime thrillers?

Marimba Williamson: Of course! And there's nothing extraordinary about finding lightweight literature in a private library. When taking a second look, you find – alongside the complete works of Goethe, Shakespeare, Breton, Char, Éluard, Tzara, etc. – books by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, the authors of the “Fantômas” series, alongside Edgar Wallace, is somewhat more familiar figure for Germans! And given the number of Fantômas and Wallace books, we can conclude that at times, even Joan Miró required some distraction…

Marimba Williamson is the librarian of the Werner Schmalenbach Library of the K20.
Alissa Krusch posted of questions while looking over Williamson's shoulder during the installation of the exhibition.


Additional information

Joan Miró’s personal library encompasses approximately 1700 volumes, and has been preserved in its entirety. Since 2009, it has been held as a loan from the Miró family in the Fundació Miró in Barcelona. Those who wish to delve deeper into the artist’s literary preferences can turn to the exhibition catalog: Joan Punyet Miró, the artist’s grandson, has contributed a marvelous overview of his grandfather's private library (Joan Punyet Miró: “Phantasie der Buchstaben. Ein persönlicher Blick auf Mirós Bibliothek” (Fantasy of letters: a personal look at Mirós library), Miró. Malerei als Poesie, ed. the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, published by Hirmer Verlag, 2015).


Fundació Barcelona
http://www.fmirobcn.org/en/

Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca (in Palma)

http://miro.palmademallorca.es/index.php

Successió Miró
http://www.successiomiro.com

Mirós library in OPAC
OPAC

On the exhibition
Miró. Paing as Poetry

  1. 02.08.2015 18:58 Semmann
    Ganz wunderbare Ausstellung, aber ein Frage: Warum keine Bücher in spanischer Sprache ? Eine Antwort würde mich sehr freuen!
  2. 16.08.2015 16:40 Heinz Clas
    Wirklich eine wichige Ausstellung
    man bekommt einen ganz neuen
    Ausblick auf Miro. Bin ganz begeistert und werde noch einen Besuch mit mehr Zeit machen.
    H. Clas 81 J.

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