Issue date: 14 Oct, 2015
ARTISTIC HERITAGE
The Artistic Heritage issue is made up of a block sheet and a stamp showing one of Joan Miró's murals. Imitating the original, the stamp has been printed with a light glazed ceramic that gives it a high gloss.
The fragment pictured on the stamp is part of a mural at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, located on the Paseo de la Castellana. The work was designed by Joan Miró and contains 7,056 ceramic pieces measuring 20 x 30 centimetres each, made by sculptor and ceramicist Joan Gardy Artigas. It covers a total area of 550 square metres and is the second largest in the world after the one in the German city of Wiesbaden, also designed by Miró.
The mural was installed on the main façade of the Palacio de Congresos in 1980. This was 10 years after the building was officially opened on 1 June 1970 by the then Prince of Asturias, Don Juan Carlos de Borbón. Miró received Spain's Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts for this work.
Born in Barcelona in 1893, Joan Miró was a painter, sculptor, etcher and ceramicist. His father's influence led him to study business, but soon decided to devote himself to painting and entered Francesc Galí School of Fine Arts (Barcelona) where discovered the latest European artistic trends. In 1920 he travelled to Paris and met Picasso and other painters, sparking an evolution in his painting. His works incorporate surrealist aspirations and use bright colours —mostly red, blue, yellow, green and black— over neutral backgrounds.
In 1930 he began working in other fields such as sculpture, bas-relief and collages. He spent the Spanish Civil War in Paris and painted the mural “El Segador” for the 1937 International Exposition. Years later he returned to Spain and began his first works in ceramic, in collaboration with the great ceramicist Llorens Artigas. In the 1950s and 1960s he created several large-scale ceramic murals for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Harvard University (USA) and the Barcelona airport. He also did memorable work in sculpture. Joan Miró died in Palma de Mallorca in 1983.
Rate A - €0.75. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, up to 20 g.
Rate A2 - €0.85. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, between 20 g and 50 g.
Rate B - €1.65. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20 g.
Rate C - €1.75. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world (except USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), up to 20 g.
Rate D - €2.10. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, up to 20 g.