Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

ART REVIEW by Dr. Gertrude Langer Fortunate to have Arp here J H E cxctlemcn t over the Chinese exhibition and the Albertina Graphics exhibition to some degree overshadowed the Importance of the Jean Arp exhibition. Brisbane, not on lhe original Itinerary, nearly missed out on A11J1 as well. But now, with n f!nnn– clal contribution to the Queellliland Art Gallery rrom Its Art Gallery Society, we are fortunate to have this treaL The Arp collection has been brought to Austral!& b)' New York art hlsto• rtan, gallery director and owner Madeleine Chalette LeJwa, who also prepared the superb rat.alogue. The e x h I b I t Io n Is toured In Australia by lhe ,Australian Gallery Dlrec• tors' Council, financially assisted by the Visual A rt s Board, and In• demnlfled by the Austra– lian Government. * The 83 works comprise M free-standing sculp• bures, 14 rellefs and 33 :ollages, drawings, wood• · outs and•watercolors, · The period they embrace I& 1930-196tl - that Is, ' rrom the year Arp, then aged 4-4, decided to create · freestandlng sculpture <hi& first, "Gnome", Is In- • eluded) untJI his death. . Although Arp turned rather late to free-stand– ing sculpture, all through , his long creat.lve life he continued with two-dim– ensional work In various • media. • With his painted re- • llefs, assembled from cut• outs, as well as In his col• • !ages, In which he dis– covered composition 11 ac• : cording to the law of , chance" as early as his Dada days (1915•19) In Zurich, he "'as a highly · original Innovator. : Fu'rthermore, Arp from • his early yo~th, wrote In• novatlve, quite magic po– etry. Arp was born In Alsace, where French and Ger· man cultures merged. HIS poems he wrote alter– nately In French and German• He moved about a great dea.l and supported all the modern movements of the first part of the cen• tury wherever the ex– citing things happened - In German cities In Paris (to where he always re– turned) and In S1·:ltzer– land, and tra1•elled else• where a great deal. As soon ns he had dis– covered his nrtist,!c phi• Josophy of morphological forms, he never •·ban• doned the organic prln• clple. His wonderfully alive and Imaginative "con· cretlons" <as he ealled them) were arrived at through a profound un• derstandlng of nature's own workshop, through poetic Intuition, through a s Io w process of slm– pllflcatlon, unification, and self-critical aenae of perfection. A human torso, a seed, a bud, a cloud may merge together In one smooth, flowing, ambiguous, uni• f Ie d , caressable form, both sensuou.s and splrl• tual, both gently hu• morous and wise. ln the last few decades, sculpture has taken some QUlte different courses. r he s e can never ln- 1·a11dal,e Arp·s great gift to humnnltr. His nrt embodies the perennial philosophy. It Is an art which sees man and nature In harmony, at one. It Is an art, not ot aggression but of love. The exhibition, •:hlch opens tomorrow at the Queensland Art Gallery, Is one not to be missed. It will remain open untll August 23. Sth Fir,, MIM lldt,, 160 A"" It., lrl1b1n1, Exhibition JEAN ARP to 23rd September Queensland Art Gallery Society Jean Arp function Tu11day 30 August 6 to I p.m. Bla ir Edm nds ""111 read Aro'1 p cirv. same of which 11 01:"(lllt wcrk 1n the l"" h lb111on. Dr. Gin1rudf' Lnn or ""ill be ovollable far d11cms• n on Arp', s.cu1pturt , ullieh e nd ....-arks on ooper.