13076_full
ARP, Jean/Hans
Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin 1887 - Basel, Switzerland 1966Constellation aux cinq formes blanches et deux noires
Variation I: Constellation with Five White and Two Black Forms
1932
painted wood
relief
Dimensions (HxWxD): 23 3⁄16 x 29 9⁄16 x 1 1⁄2 in.
verso: Arp
Acc. No.: 53.213
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Photo credit: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY.
© Artist : Fair Use (Section 107, Copyright Act 1976)Provenance
- 1953, Museum Purchase
Bibliography
- Museum's website (accessed December 19, 2018)
Comment
- Label text by Margherita Andreotti, 2005, Museum's website (accessed December 19, 2018):
Arp 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.