In search of simple, essential forms Joan Miró (1893–1983) created paintings in which he captured the material beauty of walls with intense attention to detail and poetic expressiveness. The wall was not merely the subject of the depiction, however: its physical and haptic quality inspired the artist to paint on materials such as whitewashed canvas, raw burlap and sandpaper. His preference for elongated, extremely narrow formats reflects Miró’s exploration of the wall and simultaneously points to his late ceramic friezes, including the important “Oiseaux qui s‘envolent” frieze in the collection of the Kunsthaus Zürich, as well as monumental triptychs to which this catalogue, for the first time, pays extensive tribute