Constellation aux cinq formes blanches et deux noires (Variation I:Constellation with Five White and Two Black Forms)
Artist
Jean Hans Arp
(French, born Germany, 1888 - 1966)
Date1932
MediumPainted wood relief
DimensionsFramed: 34 3/4 × 40 5/8in. (88.3 × 103.2cm)
Overall: 23 3/16 x 29 9/16 x 1 1/2in. (58.9 x 75.1 x 3.8cm)
Overall: 23 3/16 x 29 9/16 x 1 1/2in. (58.9 x 75.1 x 3.8cm)
ClassificationsSCULPTURE
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Terms
Object number53.213
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightPresumed copyright: the artist or the artist's representative/heir(s) / Licensing by ARS, New York, NY
Label TextArp used the term "constellation" to describe clusters, groupings, and the interplay of forms in nature. He recalled: "I limited myself to arranging, on the water's edge, some pebbles with which I composed what could be called constellations .…" Like pebbles and stones, the contours of the forms in this relief seem to have been blunted and smoothed by the action of the elements.
Variation I is the second in a series of four versions based on the rearrangement of the same seven shapes. At the time, Arp was creating works in the round that were free from a fixed orientation. These were three-dimensional shapes that could be self-supporting when placed, at the whim of the viewer, in several different orientations. In the series of reliefs to which Variation I belongs, the sense of freedom from a fixed orientation is instead explored by creating a sequence of works in which the same shapes are affixed to their background in a different relation to each other. This approach may be an extension of Arp's interest in nature, as it enhances associations between his forms and objects in nature-leaves, branches, pebbles, stones, clouds, shells, seeds-that are likewise free from a fixed orientation.
Margherita Andreotti
2005
