"The students of WSU and citizens of Wichita should have a high level of civic pride to see this masterpiece re-entered into the public art milieu of Wichita," said Bob Workman, director of the Ulrich Museum of Art at WSU.
 
Martin H. Bush, founding director of the Ulrich Museum, commissioned the pioneering Spanish surrealist artist Joan Miró to create a one-of-a-kind artwork to fill the large expanse on the museum's south-facing exterior. Miró's mosaic mural Personnages Oiseaux was dedicated on October 31, 1978 and immediately became a vibrant symbol of the campus and the museum.

Joan Miró (1893–1983) was one of the most renowned 20th century artists. Over a span of seven decades, Miró produced works in painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, collage, ceramic and relief-mural. The hallmarks of his artistic style—child-like abstract shapes, filled with strong primary colors, surrounded by bold black lines and rendered in a playful manner—are all enthusiastically depicted in Personnages Oiseaux.

Miró himself was quite pleased with the final results. "It fills me with pride to see the great reception of the mural by the students and people of Wichita, who are the people of the future," Miró wrote in a letter to Martin H. Bush in 1981. He did not charge a fee for the design, taking instead a nominal payment for the prototype painting.
 
The hundreds of thousands of glass and marble tesserae that comprise Personnages Oiseaux were fabricated at Ateliers Loire in Chartres, France, a specialized decorative stained-glass manufacturer, following Miró's design for the mosaic. It is the only mural that Miró made in this medium.

"Now that its long restoration process is complete, the mosaic sparkles once again," said Workman. "Joan Miró's passion for inspiring individuals through public art is what led him to creating this world-class artwork—we are thrilled to carry that passion forward with his mural inspiring generations to come."
 
Coinciding with the return of Personnages Oiseaux, the Ulrich Museum is presenting an exhibition of works on paper by Joan Miró that showcases holdings from the museum's collection as well as artwork loaned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The pieces included in Miró: Shape and Color provide context for the exterior mural's design and highlight the unique visual vocabulary that characterized Miró's career. Miro: Shape and Color is on view through December 11, 2016.

The mosaic mural was not created the way mosaics are generally created. Miró had a certain person that he wanted to oversee the fabrication of the mural and to be able to visit the site as the work progressed, so then, the mural was originally fabricated at Ataliers Loire, in Chartes, France. In order for the mural to be shipped to Wichita, Kansas it was decided that it would be constructed in panels. The mural consists of 80 panels, each measuring 3 x 5 feet, and weighing around 155 pounds.
 

The mosaic mural is made up of a few hundred thousand glass and marble tesserae, as the years and weather took toll on the work the glass began to fall off. In 2011 all 80 panels were removed. For five years Russell-Marti Conservation Services Inc., worked to re-adhere the pieces and replace the missing pieces with new pieces (many from Ataliers Loire’s stock from the original construction). RMCS matched the shapes, sizes, and colors and tonal qualities of the original pieces—perfectly maintaining the artist’s original intent. They replaced the original marine grade particleboard with a perforated stainless steel backing. And for the final step they cleaned each tessera with dental tools, steam, and fiberglass brushes.

ULRICH MUSEUM OF ART
Wichita State University
316-978-6462
ulrich.wichita.edu