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Already, in the first three-dimen
sional pieces of sculpture of the early
Meudon period, Arp began to intro
duce a new kind of monumentality
in which creation naturelle and créa
tion humaine are amalgamated.
Turning away from the daemonic
quality of extreme proportional con
trasts, he arrived at a synthesis. Para
dox and irony are absorbed in favor
of a more complete participation of
human values, with life and nature.
His sharp structural bias, far from
becoming an end in itself, even
stresses, through contrast, the struc
tural growth of his earlier period.
He desired “to inject into the vain
and bestial world and its retinue, the
machine, something peaceful and
vegetative
Earlier Arp had started out from
the material itself, trying to bring to
the surface plastically its autono
mous and latent forces. Later he be
gan, as it were, to choose and direct
his materials quite freely, more and
more confident of the existence of
higher human values. The sudden
death of Arp’s wife, Sophie Täuber,
the integrity and stern consistency
of whose works (1915-43) had con
firmed and inspired him throughout
his creative struggle, should be men
tioned here, because it hastened a
development already in progress. In
stead of papiers collés, Arp now con
centrated on papiers déchirés, intro
ducing for the first time a transitory
element. The vulnerability of ma
terials to time is anticipated, and
made an intrinsic component of the
work. This attitude towards time,
which also interests Picasso as ques
tions of simultaneity and movement,
is brought to direct expression in
the work of Arp.
In 1943, Arp made several wood
and marble reliefs which were of a
marked angularity, as though of
something shattered. The flowing
interplay of positive mass-forms and
the negative space-forms is main
tained, although we are conscious of
the kind of felt vacuum that follows
shock. This interlude of dispersed
angularity recalls the severe early
collages, as well as the nervous pa
piers déchirés of later date, in which
transient things and death are di
rectly absorbed.
No doubt the most specifically
stressed quality in Arp’s art is the
interpenetration of natural growth
fantastically transformed, plus clear
mathematical structure. The float
ing cell-like forms — primary units
of growth — are distilled, reshaped
into consciousness as they pass
through the artist. Arp’s proximity
to elementary worlds, such as those
of the child and of pre-history, is
inherent, as it is with Klee and Miro,
and never affected.
In contrast to Arp’s weird and
dormant forms, which seem to be
long to other stratas of conscious
ness, those of Brancusi have some
thing mediterranean that emerges
with incredible splendor from the
material in which they are con
ceived. They should be visualized
out in the open, immensely en
larged, as great symbols of enlight
enment. Arp’s forms are fraternally
tied to the flowers, leaves and stones
of the world; Brancusi’s are full of