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the vastness of the seas, mountains
and sky.
"The Tower” (1942-45) should
be mentioned here, as it shows once
more how Arp allows organic and
architectural elements to oscillate.
There is an endless interplay of
forms and proportions between one
mass and the next. Convertible and
loose-jointed, the component parts,
although entirely individual, form
when put together a surprising en
tity that has no beginning and no
end.
The synthesis which Arp has suc
ceeded in establishing between the
natural and the consciously struc
tural, between chance and law, has
caused artists belonging to the most
divergent modern groups to ac
knowledge his achievement.
To Mondrian, whose works are
the result of a more mathematical
and architectural mind, “les formes
neutres de Arp, qui tombent sur un
fond neutre en dehors de toute de
termination” 10 meant a confirmation
of his own elementary and universal
“neoplastic” compositions. Every
trace of figurative representation,
every particular form, is eliminated
here in favor of a rectangular juxta
position of straight lines and pure
10. Piet Mondrian, L’Art nouveau et la vie
nouvelle, 1931. Arp’s collaboration upon the
magazine De Stijl (founded by Théo van Does-
burg), one of the most inspiring buttresses of
the whole movement, as well as the collective
achievement in the Aubette (Strassburg, 1926),
colors, “la nouvelle culture des rap
ports purs.”
The surrealist Max Ernst, whose
paintings often have a marked lit
erary content and are as complex as
his vision of reality (which is magi
cally haunted, subliminal and scien
tific at the same time), underlines on
the other hand Arp’s hypnotic lan
guage. “He attracts and reflects the
most secret, the most revealing rays
of the universe. . . . His forms carry
us back to forgotten paradises. They
teach us to understand the language
spoken by the universe itself.” 11
That two artists so diametrically
opposed as Mondrian and Ernst
should join in recognition of Arp is
surely very significant, and can only
be explained by the fact that Arp’s
art is one of the purest creative
achievements of our time. This is
largely due to a rare sensitivity,
which enables him to penetrate and
to disclose the mysteries of the nat
ural world in forms so elementary
and structurally precise that they
seem to belong to the origins of
existence. His art spans aeons, re
flecting what is constant and con
stantly changing.
Translated by A. E. van Eyck
for which van Doesburg, Arp and Sophie
Tiiuber-Arp executed the murals, show how
excellently these two very different modes of
expression can be combined,
li. Max Ernst, Arp, Art of This Century
Exhibition, New York, 1944.