EDINBURGH.- Two extraordinary sculptures by the great Surrealist artist Joan Miró (1893-1983) have been placed on long loan to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The massive bronze sculptures, the taller of which measures ten feet in height, have been generously lent by the Miró Estate in Spain. Femme (Woman), 1970 and Personnage (Figure), 1978 were have been installed on the lawn in front of the Gallery, where they will be on show for up to five years.

Miró is perhaps best known as a painter, but also made a remarkable body of sculptures. Many began as ordinary objects he had found or bought, and then had enlarged and cast in bronze. Femme is based on a perfume bottle, which by the addition of spindly arms and a massive leaf shape (Miró’s shorthand for the female sex) he transformed into a woman. Personnage is based on a bar of soap sitting on a perforated soap dish. Placed in a vertical, standing position and given two ‘eyes’, it assumes the appearance of a head.

Miró’s works are witty and playful and have an extraordinary lightness of touch, but they also count as some of the most impressive monumental sculptures of the twentieth century. The Gallery is internationally renowned for its collection of Surrealist art but until now has not been able to show any major Surrealist work outdoors.