The wizard behind the wizard
Posted: April 13, 2012 Filed under: MET, Museums | Tags: blue symbolism, dreams, Joan Miro, Mystery, Photo:This is the Color of My Dreams, Spanish art, Surrealist art, Wizard of Oz 4 Comments
Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams, 1925
Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983)
The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, 2002
© 2011 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
I’ve never stopped to consider the color of my dreams. If you asked me, I’d probably say just black and white. Miró painted his blue. This painting isn’t what you’d normally expect from him, but he’s a Surrealist after all, so all bets are off. It’s a simple composition like the two paintings previous, Tantric Art and Cy Twombly’s (blog post Passed Over). And I think, quite a daring distillation.
We watch this lone washed spot of blue, deeply cryptic and cool. We read the words, enticingly enigmatic. Two simple mysteries at work here. A simple mystery? Ironic, huh? I tend to want a complicated mystery. Smoke and mirrors. Yet here, Miró distills his dreams to a single, curious blue. How could he do such a thing? What about all those disturbing images of teeth falling out of my mouth, or showing up to class naked, or avoiding being squashed by the big toe of God, or gasp, waking up in the arms of the wrong lover?
Because we dream that we are very complex and interesting people after all. Doesn’t your inner-soul cavern protect ancient runes? That only the wisest seer among us can decipher (for $150 an hour). Yet with a wave of his brush, Miró banishes our mystery in a cloud of blue smoke.
Curiosity is this blue spot, motioning us to pull back the velvet curtain of our dreams, of our “self.” Because we already know what we want to know about ourselves and others. It’s finding the courage to be curious. To ask. This painting, once enigmatic opens to a simple reality. Revealing that the wizard behind the great Oz is a blue you or me.
igetitart 
“Curiosity is this blue spot”
there is research that supports the proposition that the color blue promotes or enhances creative thinking… interesting.
Is it peer reviewed?
yep, with lots of cool and interesting boats going back and forth while I reviewed it on the pier.
the serious answer is I think so, I don’t spout off research results from online message board polling or things like that.
quick google search found this:
“These associations aren’t trivial ones – they can affect the way we think. In a clever series of experiments, Ravi Mehta and Rui Zhu from the University of British Columbia found that red makes people averse to risks, more vigilant and more attentive to detail. Blue hues, on the other hand, encourage them to explore and try new things, and boosts creative thinking. These influences come through in tasks as simple as solving anagrams and memorising words, and as complex and realistic as creating a child’s toy. ”
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/02/05/colouring-your-mind-red-improves-attention-to-detail-blue-boosts-creativity/
there are many more similar experiments about visual perception and impact on the mind. I know there are many peer reviewed articles on the creative process and I’m sure some cover this notion.