Fino al 1 Marzo è
in corso da Hauser & Wirth, in Savile Row a Londra, una stupenda mostra su
Hans Arp, una vasta raccolta delle sue opere più articolate presentate in un
fantastico colpo d’occhio unico.
Press Release
Curated by Julian
Heynen, this exhibition examines the relationship between form and chance in a
selection of Hans Arp’s important but rarely seen sculptures from 1947 to 1965.
In an unusual approach, Heynen positions Arp’s work alongside Passstücke (Adaptives)
by Franz West, examining the shared creative principle of the two artists. A
selection of Arp’s poetry will be installed on the walls and broadcast
throughout the gallery.
Hans Arp is a
familiar figure of classical Modernism and was a key contributor in the
development of Dada and Surrealism in the early twentieth century, yet it was
during the following decades that he would articulate the forms to which he
would persistently return. Although his later practice is often overlooked, Arp
continued producing sculpture and poetry in a continuation of the Dada
tradition until his death in 1966, during which time he built up an incredible
body of work.
‘Chance – Form –
Language’ comprises twenty sculptures from Arp’s later period, cast in the
artist’s preferred materials of bronze, marble and aluminium. The sculptures
are broadly figurative and demonstrate a loose continuation of classical
traditions, depicting curved organoid shapes which originate from an
observation of nature combined with an element of fantasy. Arp’s creative
process was guided by intuition and informed by chance; burgeoning, abstract
forms encounter complex, introverted figures, revealing an unique visual
vocabulary with a basis in biomorphism.
‘Ptolemy II’ is a
seminal example of Arp’s approach to sculpture in his later period, revealing
an exploration of form through a sensual language of opposites – inside and
outside; solid and void; presence and emptiness, human and nature. The
sculpture is a singular, timeless form that both draws on and transcends
sculptural abstraction and the history of art, becoming autonomous and
placeless, freed from commissions with an intrinsic beauty of its own.
Within this
exhibition Arp’s works are presented in a dense but irregular installation, forging
connections between individual sculptures while becoming immersed in an almost
endless metamorphoses of shapes. Arp’s poetry, an intrinsic part of his
practice, is given equal importance in the exhibition. Over 20 of his poems
will be broadcast into selected areas of the gallery through ceiling speakers.
Excerpts from another group of 27 poems will be installed directly onto the
gallery walls. The concurrent presentation of Arp’s two spheres of artistic
activity in a single space will awaken a sense of consistency across his work
as a whole, demonstrating how his material and linguistic forms interpenetrate
and complement each other.
Works by Franz
West punctuate the exhibition to shed an unexpected light upon Arp’s practice.
Franz West’s Passstücke invite interpretation through human participation. As
in Arp’s late work, the sculptures themselves are ambiguous semi-organic forms
– meaning evolves through the way humans intuitively engage with the pieces,
introducing an element of chance to the work.
‘Arp’s criteria
in his search for form is often perceived as a kind of positive aimlessness.
This was what led us to turn to a contemporary artist ‘for advice’, as it were,
and incorporate a few of his works in the exhibition. Five sculptures by Franz
West (1947 – 2012) are mixed in as visual footnotes to the works of Hans Arp.
Most are examples of his so-called ‘Adaptives’, or ‘Fitting Pieces’. With them
West makes it impossible to overlook the (seemingly) arbitrary aspect of form;
these sculptures were intended to be used by viewers in combination with their
own bodies as instruments for self-exploration.’ – Julian Heynen
In displaying
Arp’s sculpture alongside his poetry and works by Franz West, this exhibition
proposes a new examination of Arp’s art, where chance is viewed as an active
component in the creation of both his sculptural and linguistic forms.
