In 1927, in the spirit of modernist challenges to authority and convention, Joan Miró declared his intent to “assassinate painting” and upend its traditional hierarchies of materials and subject matter. Painting demonstrates Miró’s ongoing search for new artistic materials, including gravel and sand mixed into oil paint, which he applied to Masonite, a rugged support he favored over traditional canvas. Fascinated by the effect of such rough substances, the artist told his dealer not to worry if any materials came loose when the work was exhibited overseas, since it would “make the surface . . . look like an old crumbling wall, which will give great force to the formal expression.”