This painting, “Bleu II” is from the Museum of Modern Art. It was painted in 1961 by Joan Miro.
At first, when i looked at this painting, I thought, “what a terrible painting. How can they possibly call this art?” It’s a streak of red paint with a few drops of dark paint painted on top of a blue background. Anybody could make that. Then, I looked at the title of the painting. I noticed that Bleu was spelled weirdly. So, I took a picture of the painting and when I got home, I looked up the word bleu to see what it meant. I found something quite interesting. Bleu, the noun, means “cheese containing a blue mold.” I tried looking at the painting again and somehow backing up the piece with the definition of bleu, but not even I could manipulate the painting to such an extent.
Then, I turned my head to the left and looked at the painting from a different perspective where the red strip of paint is horizontal and the drips of dark paint were underneath it. Then, I saw something. I saw a streak of blood and drips of blood underneath.
At first, when I read the title and noticed the Roman Numerals at the end, I thought of war, but I didn’t connect that to the painting at all until after I saw blood.
I think this painting is meant to represent war. The blue in the background is the color of blood when it flows through your veins or in this case, a soldiers veins. The red strip represents the blood of the soldier right after it leaves the body and it almost seems like it’s supposed to represent a desperate cry for help as though the soldiers efforts to reach someone are slowly weakening and they are falling to their death. Then, the dark drips represent death, where the soldiers blood has dried up and turned to a scab like color. At this point there is no hope for the soldier anymore and he lays dead in the middle of the battle field, still, until it is safe and someone can retrieve his body. Then, the story circles back to the blue background. The soldier’s funeral is full of tears, yet full of peace, because everyone there respected the soldier for his patriotism and his contribution to his country. I see blue as a peaceful color.
