Jean Arp

Galerie Édouard Loeb, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
Sylvia & Joseph Slifka, New York (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above circa 1985

Carola Giedion-Welcker, Jean Arp, Stuttgart, 1957, illustration of a bronze example p. 109
Herbert Read, Arp, London, 1968, illustration of a bronze example p. 94
Arie Hartog, ed., Hans Arp, Sculptures—A Critical Study, Ostfildern, 2012, no. 48, illustration of a plaster example p. 257

This work is in excellent condition. For the complete condition report prepared by Wilson Conservation, LLC please contact the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at +1 (212) 606-7360.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Réveil is a rare and exquisite example of Arp's early style, executed at the time when his work achieved a formal purity and a high level of abstraction. Its elegant, elongated form is subtly evocative of a bird, while its simplicity and a smooth, supple surface transcends the organic, embodying the purist physical beauty that is the hallmark of Arp’s most successful sculptures. The transcendental quality of his 1930s sculpture bears strong stylistic, technical and poetic affinities with the work of Constantin Brancusi. As Stephanie Poley observed: "Arp was concerned with purity, with being free, being independent of everything unpleasant and limiting, and with the active, constant emission of positive energy as well as its perception" (Stephanie Poley in Arp (exhibition catalogue), Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1987, p. 229). 

Guided by chance and intuition, the artist often created organic, irregular shapes evocative of natural forms and parts of human or animal anatomy. Although he developed a highly abstract visual vocabulary, in his sculptures Arp always established a connection between these biomorphic forms and elements of the natural world in such a way as to unveil the mysterious and poetic elements hidden in everyday forms. Arp always enjoyed seeing his sculptures in natural settings, evidenced by his large carvings placed in the garden outside his studio, where they could merge into the landscape and become one with nature.

Arp’s interest in man, nature, art and sculptural forms that evoked and blended the three is of paramount importance to his oeuvre. Arp wrote: “Art is a fruit that grows in man like a fruit on a plant or a child in its mother’s womb” (ibid., p. 260). At the heart of Arp’s success is the organic beauty of his sculptures, which seem to manifest from a vision unencumbered by formal restraints. In 1944 Max Ernst wrote, “Arp’s hypnotic language takes us back to a lost paradise, to cosmic secrets and teaches us to understand the language of the universe” (ibid., p. 261).