Intransigent Poem by gershon hepner

On “L’Intransigent” a watering can,
a sign that if you irrigate
intransigence, if you’re a Catalan,
the avant-garde find hard to hate.

Miró used both these symbols in “The Farm, ”
which he then sold to Hemingway;
imagination acted like a charm,
and blew intransigence away.

Now had he been a German or a Jew,
who’d have admired this Miró?
Intransigence is what they like to do,
but Catalans are so simpatico!

Michael FitzGerald writes about Miró’s painting, “The Farm, ” in WSJ, December 13,2008:
After working on 'The Farm' seven or eight hours a day for more than nine months beginning in July 1921 and continuing through the following spring, Joan Miró (1893-1983) threw himself into the challenging process of finding a buyer for the painting in the fickle Parisian art world. As he recalled, 'In the evening, I would go to the gym to do boxing. My intellectual work all day required a physical outlet.' One of his sparring partners at the popular American club was Ernest Hemingway. Miró's aggressive punching, despite his short stature, won Hemingway's respect and helped Miró score an artistic knockout - the writer ultimately bought 'The Farm' and extolled it in print as capturing 'all that you feel about Spain when you are there and all that you feel when you are away and cannot go there.... No one could look at it and not know it was painted by a great painter.'


12/15/08