This dazzling hand-signed color lithograph on watermarked Arches paper was created by Joan Miro on the occasion of his major exhibition at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Ceret, which is in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of southern France. The museum has numerous Picasso paintings, sculptures and ceramics, and features paintings by Chagall, Matisse, Herbin, Soutine,the Fauves the Impressionists - and Miro. After his 1977 exhibition at the museum, Miro donated one painting as well this lithograph to the museum's permanent collection. CERET was published in a very small edition of only 50. This print was also chosen as the design for an unsigned lithograph poster for the exhibition, published in a larger edition of 2000. Because of the famous poster, CERET is one of Miro's more recognizable lithographs, but the work offered here is the far more scarce and desirable original hand signed and numbered lithograph, from the limited edition of only 50 - not to be confused with the lithographic poster.

It contains many of Miro's most recognizable motifs, like thick black lines, delicate splatters of color, and geometric shapes that form anthropomorphic figures. A bright impression with deckled edges, which would look terrific when floated and framed.

One of the twentieth century's greatest Modern artists, Joan Miró (1893-1983) created pictorial space where imaginative and cosmic elements were combined with common symbols from the everyday world. Miró, along with André Masson, was one of the first artists to develop automatic drawing as a way to undo previously established techniques in painting. Though Miró chose not to become an official member of the Surrealist group, his automated drawing technique was the beginning of Surrealism as an art movement. Left free to experiment with other artistic styles without compromising his position within the group, Miró pursued his own interests in the art world, expanding on automatic drawing and surrealism, to expressionism and Color Field painting. Miró uses a characteristic flowing calligraphic style, creating a world of abstract forms resembling shorthand signs and symbols.

The provenance of this work is superb: it came from the private collection of the renowned American art dealer Joan Sonnabend, who passed away in 2011. Sonnabend studied sculpture with David Smith at Sarah Lawrence in 1950, and went on to do graduate work Boston University, Wellesley College, and Harvard University. n the early 1970's she was a partner in the Harcus, Krakow, Rosen, Sonnabend Gallery in Boston and since 1975 she had been the principal of Obelisk Gallery, a private gallery and art dealer in Boston.