Trois objets désagréables sur une figure

After devoting himself principally to relief sculpture throughout his Dada and Surrealist years, Jean Arp found himself increasingly drawn to the expanded volumes of sculpture in the round during the early 1930s, and quickly developed a lyrical vocabulary of curving, richly allusive biomorphic forms that took inspiration from the shapes and processes of the natural world. Originally conceived in 1932, Trois objets désagréables sur une figure is among the earliest examples of Arp’s work in this vein, illustrating the principle themes that would underpin his art for years to come. Indeed, while the title suggests a figurative subject – the undulating contours of the base element conjuring an image of a face upon which the three ‘disagreeable objects’ sit – the evocative forms remain ultimately elusive, teasingly suggestive but never coalescing into a recognizable subject. In the original title for the sculpture, this trio of moveable smaller forms were identified as a fly, a moustache and a mandolin, conjuring an amusing narrative. Consisting of four individual elements, the sculpture welcomes rearrangement and handling by the viewer, introducing an element of chance to the work as we are invited to interact with the various forms, each of which can be shifted and moved to create surprising new visual connections and juxtapositions.