.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Created in 1963, Constellation de sept formes blanches sur fond blanc demonstrates the essential refinement of Jean Arp’s mature wood reliefs, combining a purity of form with an allusive sense of mystery and intrigue. These works epitomise Arp’s unique visual language, straddling the boundary between the seemingly opposing aesthetics of abstraction and surrealism, using spontaneity and chance to present an art that went beyond the constraints of rational thought. Consisting of seven fluidly cut wooden forms set against a rectangular panel, the piece is executed with an elegant restraint, each element finished in smooth layers of pure, monochromatic white paint, the biomorphic forms carefully delineated and positioned to achieve a dynamic visual effect.
The choice of title positions this work within Arp’s ongoing series known as the Constellations, in which he explored the seemingly infinite number of permutations and compositional possibilities among a small number of elements, with individual shapes and forms often repeated across multiple compositions. The series began in the 1920s and provided Arp with a fertile source of creative inspiration, each work bearing this title linked together like a chain of evolving ideas. From one relief to the next, Arp would play with the hand-cut wooden elements, changing their orientation, shifting them closer to one another, or expanding the space between, to create clusters and configurations that suggest a mysterious internal tension as well as chance. In this way, Arp demonstrated how the various forms could be reassembled in subtly different ways, profoundly altering the visual effect of the artwork through gentle nuances within the relationships between each form. As curator Walburga Krupp has noted, ‘The Constellations are ideal manifestations of Arp’s idea of metamorphosis, of continual change’ (quoted in R. Verlag, Hans Arp: Die Natur der Dinge, exh. cat., Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, 2007, p. 159).
While initially made from layers of colourful forms, as Arp continued to explore the potential of these painted reliefs through the decades, the visual language became increasingly reduced, until he reached a monochrome palette of white, as seen in Constellation de sept formes blanches sur fond blanc. Here, the titular group of seven round edged, biomorphic forms appear to interact with one another – though weightless and free-floating, they seem to be held in place by a strange internal gravity that binds them together. By eliminating the interplay of different colours in favour of a monochromatic white, Arp focuses the viewer’s attention sharply on the pure formal relationships within the relief, allowing us to investigate the placement and arrangement of this concentrated group of elements. In Constellation de sept formes blanches sur fond blanc the forms are at once ambiguous and precise, utilising shapes that evoke natural phenomena, such as cellular growth and organic processes. Though inherently static, the shifting play of light across the shallow surface of the composition lends an distinct dynamism to the wood relief, as subtle modulations of shadows animate the picture plane and each of the elements within.
The choice of title positions this work within Arp’s ongoing series known as the Constellations, in which he explored the seemingly infinite number of permutations and compositional possibilities among a small number of elements, with individual shapes and forms often repeated across multiple compositions. The series began in the 1920s and provided Arp with a fertile source of creative inspiration, each work bearing this title linked together like a chain of evolving ideas. From one relief to the next, Arp would play with the hand-cut wooden elements, changing their orientation, shifting them closer to one another, or expanding the space between, to create clusters and configurations that suggest a mysterious internal tension as well as chance. In this way, Arp demonstrated how the various forms could be reassembled in subtly different ways, profoundly altering the visual effect of the artwork through gentle nuances within the relationships between each form. As curator Walburga Krupp has noted, ‘The Constellations are ideal manifestations of Arp’s idea of metamorphosis, of continual change’ (quoted in R. Verlag, Hans Arp: Die Natur der Dinge, exh. cat., Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, 2007, p. 159).
While initially made from layers of colourful forms, as Arp continued to explore the potential of these painted reliefs through the decades, the visual language became increasingly reduced, until he reached a monochrome palette of white, as seen in Constellation de sept formes blanches sur fond blanc. Here, the titular group of seven round edged, biomorphic forms appear to interact with one another – though weightless and free-floating, they seem to be held in place by a strange internal gravity that binds them together. By eliminating the interplay of different colours in favour of a monochromatic white, Arp focuses the viewer’s attention sharply on the pure formal relationships within the relief, allowing us to investigate the placement and arrangement of this concentrated group of elements. In Constellation de sept formes blanches sur fond blanc the forms are at once ambiguous and precise, utilising shapes that evoke natural phenomena, such as cellular growth and organic processes. Though inherently static, the shifting play of light across the shallow surface of the composition lends an distinct dynamism to the wood relief, as subtle modulations of shadows animate the picture plane and each of the elements within.