The sky is in the egg
In Encounter in the Egg I (Rencontre dans l’Oeuf I), the whimsical and lyrical Jean Arp plays on words and shapes like in his poem The Sky is in the Egg (Le ciel est dans l’oeuf) .
As an early Dadaist, Arp prefers nonsense and humor to reason. He let himself be guided by dreams and chance.
If Encounter in the Egg I evokes the paradox of the chicken and the egg, this woodcut does not provide an answer. For this fertile and original creator, this theme is above all a pretext to give birth to a harmonious work combining perfect geometric shapes and organic figures, with sharp contours and pure colors. This vegetal green evokes perpetual rebirth.
Encounter in the Egg I is the result of a chance encounter between aesthetics and poetry.
In 1959, Arp offered this woodcut to the Amercain couple, Madeleine Chalette and Arthur Lejwa, abstract art collectors and gallery owners, who organized a major exhibition of Arp’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York in 1972.
Rencontre dans l’œuf I
1959
Painted wood relief placed on a panel in its original frame
Signed, dated, titled and dedicated on the reverse
45,5 x 43 cm
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