View source for Wall of the Sun and Wall of the Moon

{{Short description|Pair of murals in Paris designed by Joan Miró}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title              = The Wall of the Sun<ref name=UnescoSOL>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/visit/uk/notices/miro1.htm|access-date=28 December 2013|title=UNESCO Catalogue}}</ref>
| image = Wall_of_the_Sun.jpg
| artist             = [[Joan Miró i Ferrà]] and [[Josep Llorens i Artigas]]
| year               = 1955–1958
| height_metric      = 2.20
| width_metric       = 15
| metric_unit        = m
| imperial_unit      = ft
| city               = [[Paris]]
| museum             = [[UNESCO]] building
| coordinates        = {{coord|48|50|58|N|2|18|22|E|scale:1000_region:FR|display=inline}}
}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title              = The Wall of the Moon
| artist             = [[Joan Miró i Ferrà]] and [[Josep Llorens i Artigas]]
| year               = 1955–1958
| height_metric      = 2.20
| width_metric       = 7.50
| metric_unit        = m
| imperial_unit      = ft
| city               = [[Paris]]
| museum             = [[UNESCO]] building
| coordinates        = {{coord|48|50|58|N|2|18|22|E|scale:1000_region:FR|display=inline}}
}}
The '''''Wall of the Sun''''' and '''''Wall of the Moon''''' are a pair of [[mural]]s made of ceramics and designed by the [[Catalan people|Catalan]] artist [[Joan Miró]] for the [[UNESCO]] building in Paris. The works were carried out by the ceramicist [[Josep Llorens Artigas]] in 1955.<ref name=Dupin>{{cite book|last=Dupin|first=Jacques|title=Miró|date=2004|publisher=Éditions Flammarion|location=Paris|isbn=2-0803-0450-X|page=395}}</ref> Initially, the walls were installed on the Place de Fontenoy in Paris, but afterwards were enclosed in a building that was constructed in order to protect them from damage caused by acid rain.<ref name=Unesco>{{cite web|title=The Wall of the Sun|url=http://www.unesco.org/visit/uk/notices/miro1.htm|publisher=UNESCO website|access-date=10 May 2014}}</ref>
==History==
[[Joan Miró]] and [[Josep Llorens Artigas]] met in 1910 at the school of art of the artist Francesc Galí (1880–1965), in Barcelona. Since the 1940s, Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas started an artistic duo that spawned objects and large ceramic murals such as one at the [[Unesco]] building in Paris or the ceramic wall of the [[Barcelona–El Prat Airport|Barcelona Airport]]. These works fused Miró lexicon with the essential qualities of the arts of earth and fire.<ref name=artigas>{{Cite web | title= Joan Gardy Artigas, Spanish (1938 - )|url=http://rogallery.com/Artigas_Joan_Gardy/artigas-biography.html| editor = rogallery.com| access-date= 28 September 2011}}</ref>
In 1955 Joan Miró was contacted by the heads of UNESCO to ask if he want to take part of the team of artists that decorated the future headquarters of the institution that is located in Paris.<ref name=runner93>{{Cite journal|last=Corredor-Matheos|first=Josep|title=The Miró-Artigas Murals|journal=Catalonia Culture|date=October 1993|pages=34–37|volume=35}}</ref> Once agreed, they granted the exterior walls of the building conferences, two perpendicular walls of three meters high and seven meters long and fifteen, respectively. Miró proposed to make a ceramic mural in collaboration with Llorens Artigas.
In 1956, Miró began working on the mural in his studio in [[Palma, Majorca|Palma]]. The following year he went to the [[Cave of Altamira|Caves of Altamira]] in with Llorens Artigas inspired to carry on the work,<ref name="Mink2000">{{Cite book|first=Janis |last=Mink|title=Joan Miró, 1893-1983|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDW3HgIw7aYC&pg=PA93|year=2000|editor=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8228-5975-9|pages=93–|publisher=Taschen }}</ref><ref name="Preckler2003">{{Cite book|first=Ana María |last=Preckler|title=Historia del arte universal de los siglos XIX y XX|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJ_edWCq2UoC&pg=PA236|date= 1 January 2003|editor=Editorial Complutense|isbn=978-84-7491-707-9|pages=236–|publisher=Editorial Complutense }}</ref> by seeing "the first mural in the world".<ref name=BYN59>{{Cite journal|last=Miró|first=Joan|title=Como hice los murales para la UNESCO|journal=Blanco y Negro|date=6 July 1959|volume=2457|language=Spanish}}</ref> They also visited the [[Collegiate church and cloister of St Juliana]] and the romanesque collection of the Museum of Art of Catalonia, the current [[Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya|MNAC]].<ref name=runner93 />
===Construction===
Once inspired, Miró moved to [[Gallifa]], at the workshop of Artigas, to proceed to prepare the tile mural. It took 35 batches, 25 tons of wood, 4 tons of sandstone and 200 kilos of enamel.<ref name=runner93 /> Once finished, the pieces were transported to Paris. Although he had worked in large formats, he had never done ceramics. Beside the ceramist Josep Llorens Artigas, they failed to find technical feasibility for baking pottery in a way that allows to obtain a background textures similar to the paintings of that time.<ref>Rebull, Melania (1994) p. 65</ref> It was decided that the composition was on the subjects of "Sun" and "Moon".<ref>[[Rosa Maria Malet|Malet, Rosa M.]] (1992) pg. 107-112</ref>
===Inauguration===
The two mosaic murals were assembled ''in situ'' by a team of technicians under the direct supervision of Miró and Llorens Artigas.<ref name=caca/> The works were inaugurated in 1958, as same as the building, and received rave reviews. Even one of the murals, the ''Wall of the Sun'' won the Biennial Prize of Guggenheim Foundation.<ref name=runner93 /><ref name=caca/> Miró later return to work for UNESCO, designing the UNESCO Medal for [[Pablo Picasso]].
===Conservation===
Initially, the walls were outdoors, but later moved inside the building to protect them from damage caused by [[acid rain]].<ref name=caca />
==Awards and recognition==
* 1958 - The biennial international award of the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation|Guggenheim Foundation]] for the ''Wall of the Sun''.<ref name=caca>{{Cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/es/ev.php-URL_ID=26465&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html|access-date=11 May 2014|title=Joan Miró en la UNESCO|editor=UNESCO|language=spanish}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11111?tmpl=component&print=1|language=catalan|access-date=28 December 2013|title=Miró al Guggenheim|editor=Guggenheim Foundation|archive-date=28 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228103939/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11111?tmpl=component&print=1|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Guggenheim>{{cite web|title=Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11111?tmpl=component&print=1|publisher=Guggenheim Museum|access-date=10 May 2014|archive-date=28 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228103939/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11111?tmpl=component&print=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Bibliography==
* {{Cite book|last=Dupin|first=Jacques|title=Miró|pages=390–391|location=Barcelona|editor=Polígrafa|year=1993|isbn=84-343-0726-X}}
* {{Cite book|first1=Carme |last1=Escudero |first2=Teresa |last2=Montaner|title=Joan Miró, desfilada d'obsessions: 14 juny-2 setembre 2001|location=Barcelona|editor=Fundació Joan Miró|year=2001|isbn=84-923925-9-2}}
*{{Cite book|last1=Punyet Miró |first1=Joan |last2=Gardy Artigas |first2=Joan |last3= Calero |first3=Cristina |title=Joan Miró, Josep Llorens Artigas: ceramics: catalogue raisonné, 1941-1981|pages=338–399|location=Paris|editor=D. Lelong|year=2007|isbn=978-2-86882-079-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Penrose|first=Roland|title=Miró|location=London|editor=Thames and Hudson |year=1993 |isbn=84-233-1976-8 }}
{{Joan Miró}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall of the Sun and Wall of the Moon}}
[[Category:1950s murals]]
[[Category:Joan Miró]]
[[Category:1958 paintings]]
[[Category:UNESCO]]
[[Category:Arts in France]]
[[Category:Moon in art]]
[[Category:Sun in art]]