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Lot Essay
The simplicity of Arp's artistic vision pervades his oeuvre. Stripping human and animal forms to their essence, he sought a return to the natural world. A writer and poet himself, Arp spoke eloquently throughout his life about his work. In a short essay which appeared in On my Way--Poetry and Essays, 1912-47, he wrote the following about his working method:
Often a detail of one of my sculptures, an outline, a contrast seduces me and becomes the seed of a new sculpture. I accentuate an outline, a contrast and that results in the birth of new forms. Among these, certain of them, two perhaps, grow more quickly and strongly than the others. I let them grow until the original forms become accessory and almost unimportant...Often it takes me months, even years to realize a sculpture. I don't let it go until it has absorbed something of my life (ibid., p.24).
This sculpture from 1964 is derived from an earlier work by the artist titled Pre-Adamite fruit (1962). The organic forms in both are clearly tied to one another, yet each work retains its own unique presence. Arp once said, "My reliefs and sculptures fit naturally in nature" (cited in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jean Arp, 1972, p. 28). Indeed, the biomorphic forms which the artist carved with such precision and brilliance are directly derived from plant and vegetable forms and lend themselves to outdoor display. Arp had always enjoyed seeing his sculptures in natural settings; towards the end of his life he carved large slabs of stone into various shapes and placed them in his garden in Ticino where they could merge into the landscape and become one with nature.
Fig BARCODE 23661837
Image of Arp in garden BARCODE 23657397
Often a detail of one of my sculptures, an outline, a contrast seduces me and becomes the seed of a new sculpture. I accentuate an outline, a contrast and that results in the birth of new forms. Among these, certain of them, two perhaps, grow more quickly and strongly than the others. I let them grow until the original forms become accessory and almost unimportant...Often it takes me months, even years to realize a sculpture. I don't let it go until it has absorbed something of my life (ibid., p.24).
This sculpture from 1964 is derived from an earlier work by the artist titled Pre-Adamite fruit (1962). The organic forms in both are clearly tied to one another, yet each work retains its own unique presence. Arp once said, "My reliefs and sculptures fit naturally in nature" (cited in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jean Arp, 1972, p. 28). Indeed, the biomorphic forms which the artist carved with such precision and brilliance are directly derived from plant and vegetable forms and lend themselves to outdoor display. Arp had always enjoyed seeing his sculptures in natural settings; towards the end of his life he carved large slabs of stone into various shapes and placed them in his garden in Ticino where they could merge into the landscape and become one with nature.
Fig BARCODE 23661837
Image of Arp in garden BARCODE 23657397