The Tightrope Walker
- Artist: Joan Miró
- Date: 1970
- Medium: Bronze and steel
- Dimensions: object: 530 x 280 x 130 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “The Tightrope Walker” by Joan Miró. Created in 1970, the piece is a bronze and steel sculpture about 53 cm tall. Miró turned a child’s doll into the figure’s torso, casting it in bronze. The base is the very cone that poured the metal, and the nails that originally held the mold together are now part of the form, hinting at a subtle violence beneath the humor. The rough, mottled surface comes from acid deposits left in the casting process, giving the piece an expressive, almost wild texture.
Miró’s goal was an “unlikely marriage of recognisable forms” – a playful yet tense balance, like a tightrope walker standing on a precarious footing. The doll’s upside‑down pose, the steel filter belly, and the exposed nails all work together to blur the line between humor and menace, inviting viewers to question where art ends and found objects begin.
See it in person
The Tightrope Walker is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
