Populated by playful creatures and animated shapes painted in bold primary tones, Miró’s Peinture (L’Air) resonates with a vibrant energy as it offers hopefulness in the face of the struggles of the Spanish Civil War. Part of a hugely important body of work where the artist engaged with the deteriorating political situation in his native country, the work offers insight into the artist’s state of mind during his exile in France. It was painted in the moment that saw the height of his engagement with political themes, the year after his monumental panel for the Spanish Pavilion was shown alongside Picasso’s Guernica at the 1937 World Fair in Paris.

The palette is restricted to the red, yellow and blue of the Estelada – the Catalan flag of independence – and the figures have been liberated from the oppression of the terrestrial realm and given the freedom of the sky. The inventive yet rigorously organised composition offers a renunciation of despair with a celebration of colour and form.