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PROPERTY FROM THE ANNA MOFFO SARNOFF ESTATE

1886-1966
CHÂTEAU DES OISEAUX

measurements
height: 19 5/8 in.

alternate measurements
49.7 cm

Executed in 1963, this work is unique. A bronze edition of 5 was later cast.

White marble

PROVENANCE

Staempfli Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above on March 1, 1965

LITERATURE

Eduard Trier, Jean Arp Sculpture: His Last Ten Years, New York, 1968, no. 300A, illustrated p. 79

NOTE

The simplicity of Arp's artistic vision pervades his oeuvre. A writer and poet himself, Arp spoke eloquently throughout his life about his work. In a short essay which appeared in On My Way: Poetry and Essays 1912-1947, he wrote the following about his working method: "Often a detail of one of my sculptures, an outline, a contrast seduces me and becomes the seed of a new sculpture. I accentuate an outline, a contrast and that results in the birth of new forms... often it takes me months, even years to realize a sculpture. I don't let it go until it has absorbed something of my life". Indeed, the biomorphic forms which the artist carved are directly derived from plant and vegetable forms and lend themselves to outdoor display. Arp had always enjoyed seeing his sculptures in natural settings as seen by his carving large slabs of stone into various shapes and placing them in his garden in Ticino where they could merge into the landscape and become one with nature.