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Lot Essay
Arp’s lustrous polished bronze of Figure sans nom is elegantly embodied through organic, rounded, curves that culminate in a golden statuette of an unknown deity. This intriguing entity, a figure without name as the title suggests, takes the form of an object of worship or meditation, ambiguous yet eternal in its essence, alive in its upright stature. The intentional namelessness of Arp’s creation generates an enhanced enigma, engendering an alluring anonymity and authority to the form. For the unfolding and evolving process of nature, as with art, is in essence inexplicable and infinite, such as that Figure sans nom retains a powerful sense of magic in its mystery.
After devoting himself principally to relief sculpture throughout his Dada and Surrealist years, by 1930, Arp found himself increasingly preoccupied by the expanded volumes of sculpture in the round. Years later he recalled, “Suddenly my need for interpretation vanished, and the body, the form, the supremely perfected work became everything to me” (quoted in Arp, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, p. 14). It was from this point forward that he learned to transform the biomorphic shapes of his earlier reliefs into full-fledged sculptural forms. Finding a touchstone in the eternal process of nature, the sculpture of the second half of Arp’s career includes infinite variations on this theme, instinctively recasting its elemental motifs into integral new forms that suggest both human and vegetal affinities, as can be seen in Figure sans nom.
After devoting himself principally to relief sculpture throughout his Dada and Surrealist years, by 1930, Arp found himself increasingly preoccupied by the expanded volumes of sculpture in the round. Years later he recalled, “Suddenly my need for interpretation vanished, and the body, the form, the supremely perfected work became everything to me” (quoted in Arp, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, p. 14). It was from this point forward that he learned to transform the biomorphic shapes of his earlier reliefs into full-fledged sculptural forms. Finding a touchstone in the eternal process of nature, the sculpture of the second half of Arp’s career includes infinite variations on this theme, instinctively recasting its elemental motifs into integral new forms that suggest both human and vegetal affinities, as can be seen in Figure sans nom.