“Flags may generate many emotions; they are powerful symbols. They can express happiness or sadness” Matt Lamb. There are many ways to express a deep feeling that can’t be drowned. There have being many enlightened people throughout our convulsive history that achieved an original way to express them.

But art is always the engine and the road par excellence to accomplish that vital purpose. Some used the warm tones of music as conductive wires to communicate their anxious souls, as Novalis stated, “ music, plastic art and poetry are synonyms. Painting and the plastic arts are nothing more than music images”.

For others the exquisite literature occupies that place, as Kafka said “ I hate anything that is not related to literature”, but there have been creative souls who opted for a simpler and at the same time complex way: painting, disturbing the spirits and senses as in the case of Picasso: “ Painting is stronger than me, she always, manages to make me do what she wants”. Simple to beginners because it is not necessary to know a complex language to understand it (as is the case of literature) and difficult for the artist because he can’t use words to help transmitting the deep feelings that inspire him, or with exiting sounds to reveal them, nevertheless, all the paintings tell us a story. The public, unfaithful lover, also inclines to one or another art form according to their taste, habits and personal culture.

Some people trill when hearing the majestic Beethoven fifth symphony, others reading the marvelous Kafka; but for each of these extraordinary works of art, it is necessary to have a refined training to be able to obtain the maximum enjoyment. It is also necessary to be in a peaceful state of mind and concentration to appreciate every little detail that is to say, it is necessary not only to read in order to enjoy Kafka, not anyone who hears will enjoy Beethoven.

In the other hand, anyone who is able to see, when facing a force fight with a marvelous painting, will feel an immediate reaction inside: Joy, sadness, nostalgia, fear, surprise and sometimes even disgust.

When I saw for the first time, Matt Lamb’s paintings I thought to myself “this man paints awfully”. Discreetly to avoid hurting susceptibilities and not making a quick value judgment, I decided to remain silent.

And here is what I observed: some green colors combined with a bloody red, beside an horrifying canary yellow, pasted in some places with a matter similar to sawdust, all of it seemed sandy, integrating to outline some kind of character-creature that appeared and disappeared again and again, telling a captivating story from which I could not withdraw and really wanted to understand.

In that moment, plenty of curiosity, begun to grow in me what I named as: “Matt Lamb’s Mystery”. Max Sznicer (2003)

Even a four year’s old child may be impressed by painting, although his comprehension of it will be different from that of an adult or the artist himself.

The paintings can be appreciated by anybody it doesn’t depend on language, race or belief. Paintings are inclusive, not exclusive, flags that don’t represent nations and their meanness, these represent all the circumstances of our life and when the artist is more capable, his works will reach our soul.

Regardless of techniques, what is far-reaching on painting is its meaning, what it represents and what rises in our hearts.

All throughout the 20th century we were lucky to have excellent painters from whom we enjoy not only their imposing works, also their deep feelings thanks to communication high technology we have today.

In this way we have the opportunity (in a higher or lower level) to know their ideas, their ideals, their various techniques, their personal attitude towards art. Thanks to this knowledge we can check the resemblance between them, further than those that may exist in their exquisite works of art.

For the public with no art expertise or only great enthusiasts, it will be difficult to notice the distinctive features in the works of an artist (further difficult will be for them to check similarities between the works of one or other), but in some very special and magic cases only by looking some works, our retina will fix those subtle forms and will have a deep effect in our souls that when confronting another work of art of the same author we will recognize him instantly.

Nearly all great painters pass through different creative stages in their life, alternating with brilliant and colorful works to obscure and sinister ones but clearly recognizable with only a few representative lines. This makes more difficult to recognize similarities between an early painting and one of the end of their career.

But there are some artists loyal to their internal ideals, which sustain a very important connection throughout their artistic life, in spite of the changes in stile and techniques. A lifeline that let us track, step by step, the evolution of their work and understand their significance. Only in a few artists this line is as clear as in the works of the Catalonian genius Joan Miró and the Irish painter Matt Lamb.

Joan Miró was born in 1893 in the tumultuous Barcelona, a city that dew to her important port, was visited by a multiplicity of people coming from different nations. Boats with curious and colorful flags drop anchor there.

Very young, Miró showed a great inclination towards the far and exotic paintings and drawings of the Arab, Chinese and Japanese world. After the effort of his father to convince him the young Miró to choose a profitable career as bookkeeper, he chooses a profession that beats in his Catalonian blood since his birth: Beaux Arts. As years went by he achieved his own technique through studies and experiencing with colors and textures, constructing his personal and distinctive style on account of which he is recognized throughout the world.

Matt Lamb was born in the tumultuous Chicago of 1932, city of gangsters, immigrants and of course with a port. Again ships with their flags: “ Flags are a display of honor and may also be great communicational elements. For example in a boat, flags are conversation”. Matt Lamb. Son of Irish parents, keeps also this nationality. His inclination towards the art had to wait for many years because he has to conduct a family company, which he turns into one of the most important American corporations.

He begins to paint in 1980 after an erroneous diagnosis that gave him only five years outlive. He never attended an art class and is a complete self-taught who constructed his own style, diving in his ateliers, in his heart and disregarding any school that could limit his creativity.

“I believe firmly that the absence of formal and conventional art education benefited Matt Lamb: this gave him the freedom to use colors, mediums and techniques in the most daring, unpredictable and not conventional way. His art is based in his personal philosophy”. Angela Tamvaki (2002).

Both painters posses an unmistakable style that may be appreciated in all their masterpieces: black lines that demarcate humanoid characters in Lamb, black lines that represent different figures in Miró, strong and pure colors in both of them explosions of colors and forms, multiple characters in one painting and in others only one definite clearly. There are also different phrases or suggestive simple words as flags carrying messages:

“Le corps de ma brune, puis que je l’aime comme ma chatte habillee en vert salade comme de la grelle. C’est pareil”, le corp de ma brune... Joan Miró. 1

“Be not afraid, I’m with you always. If you don’t know this, you know nothing” Self Portrait, Matt Lamb.2

The technique and style comparison between these two great artists comes easy to those accustomed to taste art. The main similarity is found in their flags. Flags that come from the west, awaking sleepy senses, often hearts and souls. Carrying messages that awake the senses, softening hearts and sowls:

Lamb generates a dynamic composition in which suggested characters and symbols metaphorice his narrative” Julio Sapolnik (2002)

Each form, each color in my paintings, are born in one place of reality. The concept “pure colors”, “pure forms”, have no sense to me Joan Miró (1958).

Framed canvass are not really fixed, they are not static, flap as flags in the wind, urging our immediate and total attention. Looking to any of their paintings, we will always find a new figure floating, a new message between lines, figures with strong staring eye, vigilant looking.

It’s a new painting? I asked full of curiosity. “Its an old one” answered Miró, but I often take out old works. I would like to paint something so direct as nature. Immediate you know?, with nothing in between” Walter Erben (1958).

“Lamb says that a painting is finished when a dealer takes it out of his studio by force and hangs it in the house or office of a client” Richard Speer (2003)

Although they never meat personally, lived in very distant and different countries one from the other, similarities are evident between them, not only in their marvelous works but also in the course that they pursue throughout their prolific careers.

At first sight it was impossible to imagine that the author of so unreal paintings could live a bourgeois life. But the example of Paul Klee has proved to me that an ordered exterior life is not only compatible with the rich and wide artistic vision, but by chance the incessant pressure of the images, dreams and visions make this contrast necessary. Walter Erben (1958).

“Lamb travels in a limousine and a private jet between his homes and studios in Chicago, Wisconsin, Florida Keys, Paris, Germany and Ireland, lives according to his credo enjoying what he likes of capitalism but maintaining his bohemian perspective in aesthetics and philosophy”.

Richard Speer (2003)

Miró works in different studios in Mallorca, Mont-Roig, Barcelona and Paris. According to the two geniuses, each place has a different significance, its own symbolism that comes from and gives inspiration to unique creations.

The love that these places wake in them are expressed not only in words but in facts and the primary way artists have to show their love is by creating art and letting people look through their works. All the love and affection that inspired their works of art, Miró donated great works to the city of Barcelona that can be seen  in lots of public squares and promenades, Lamb transformed a chapel in the church of Saint Martin of Tunsdorf (Germany) in one of his greatest masterpieces that wakes the deepest and ritual feelings: “All we bring inside this chapel are our prayers, love, tolerance and acceptance” Matt Lamb (2003).

If we don’t aim to find the religious, the magical sense of things, we will be adding new ways of stupefying to the already numerous that exist today”. Joan Miró (1939).

The most cherished place for Miró is Mont Roig del Camp, an ancient city with 3000 inhabitants placed near the sea, surrounded by olive groves and a soft and calm climate, ideal to create masterpieces. Miró’s family owned there, a “Masia” (farm) where the young Joan spends summers far from the heavy Barcelona climate. This is the place in which he finds total freedom to let flow his artistic creative force: “ Mont Roig instills in me a great enthusiasm and I paint madly” Joan Miró. Such was the impact that Mont Roig exerted over Miró that he kept coming back till his elderly days to paint in his studio beside the house. “All my work has been conceived in Mont Roig, never thinking about Paris, a city that I hate” Joan Miró.

Lamb’s career is not finished yet: “I have less and less time left and each time more and more to say and what I have to say is what is occurring in the movement of my mind” Matt Lamb says. Seventy-two years old, he continues working with the same vitality of a young man as Miró did in his elder days. His stile will be the same in spite of new technical changes, some characters may disappear and others will appear: changes are not disgusting to me, I take advantage of it instead of avoiding it,… what its also my curse” Matt Lamb.

“But we will always see his powerful language that talks about peace, tolerance, understanding, hope and love. We can assert that Lamb has a continuous with no end, his message of love is allover his paintings in the way of a biblical roll that deploys to understand the world since the night of time” Julio Sapolnik (2002).

Today we have the unique opportunity to see both masters works in the same exhibit, feel the power that comes from them in the same scenario where Miró created many of his works, where his inclination towards painting had its impulse: “In Mont Roig what nourished me is the force. The Force”, Miró.

The world recognition reached them both, their works are part of the most important art collections in the entire world, their flags have clear and strong messages, they didn’t tie up to one predefined style and felt the compulsion towards creation as the best way to express their feelings.

The roads of these two artists never crossed until today. Parallel lines ruled their lives, today those lines themselves in an unstable, explosive point from which great rocks, charged with a powerful creative force hurl down with violent colors, martial lines, mysterious figures. The one that wants to see this point has to be ready to see and who is ready to see ¡So there! That point is: Lamb encounters Miró.