In the mid 1920s, Miró’s art underwent a significant shift from the detailed and figurative compositions of years prior towards increasingly abstract and surrealist ones, creating a new pictorial language where symbols hover on empty grounds. One of these symbols is the grid, which appears in the lower centre of ‘Painting (The Lovers - Adam and Eve)’ (image 1, currently on view in the gallery). Its meaning is ambiguous, though it seems to serve to ground the composition. This symbol is not entirely new in Miró’s art - similar forms appear in some of his best known early works, such as ‘The Farm’ (image 2), where he uses this shape to signify leaves. Looking at Miró’s other works of the 1920s, it’s possible to see how Miró continued to use this form, increasingly simplifying and abstracting it - such as in ‘The Hunter (Catalan Landscape)’ (image 3) and ‘Head of a Catalan Peasant’ (image 4) - until it is reduced to its simplest form in ‘The Lovers.’ - Image 1: Detail, Joan Miró, ‘Painting (The Lovers-Adam and Eve)’, 1925. Currently on view in ‘Feet on the Ground, Eyes on the Stars.’ Photo by Damian Griffiths. Image 2: Detail, Joan Miró, ‘The Farm,’ 1921-22. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Image 3: Detail, Joan Miró, ‘The Hunter (Catalan Landscape)’, 1923-24. MoMA, New York. Image 4: Detail, Joan Miró, ‘Head of a Catalan Peasant,’ 1925. Tate, London.