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Head
and Shell
ca. 1933
Polshed brass
19.7 cm high
76.2553 PG 54
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Jean
Arp’s transition from his painted wooden
wall reliefs to his freestanding sculpture occurred
about 1930. At this time he executed some freestanding
reliefs, which rested either on carved bases or directly
on the ground. Biomorphic elements like those attached
to the wall reliefs gradually separated into independent
forms and assumed positions in fully three dimensional
ensembles. When, in 1931, Arp began sculpting wood and
modeling plaster in the round, he made figurative torsos.
He next embarked on a series of abstract forms called
Concretions, usually carved in plaster and some later
cast in bronze, suggesting general processes of growth,
crystallization, and metamorphosis, rather than specific
motifs drawn from nature.
Head and Shell shares the bulbous, protuberant character
of the Concretions, its curved and coiled base expressing
the spontaneous energy of pullulation. However, it is
not one continuous form but two separable elements.
Both conceptually and physically, this work is a unit
composed of discrete parts. The object’s small
size and its partite nature suggest that Arp intended
the original plaster version to be handled. During the
1930s, the artist produced several small works made
of multiple elements that the viewer could pick up,
separate, and rearrange into new configurations.
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