Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró created the "Constellations" series of 23 paintings on paper between January 1940 and September 1941, during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Fleeing to Normandy and later Palma de Mallorca, Miró used oil and tempera on small sheets, producing joyful, abstract works filled with floating forms reminiscent of music and the cosmos. The series was shipped to New York in 1944 and exhibited in 1945 at Pierre Matisse's gallery, where it captivated exiled European artists and may have influenced Jackson Pollock's all-over drip painting style.
The series matters because it represents a defiant creative act amid global chaos and is regarded as one of Miró's most important and stylistically brilliant achievements. Its New York exhibition marked a pivotal moment for European modernism in the U.S., helping shape the emerging Abstract Expressionist movement. The article also highlights the fraught contractual relationship between Miró and his dealer Pierre Matisse, and the logistical challenges of showing the works during wartime.