Masque Oiseau
Date1968
MediumGold and nickel-plated brass multiple
Dimensions10 1/4 × 7 1/4 inches (26 × 18.4 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Dr. David M. Hillenbrand.
Object number2021.4.5
Copyright© 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextJean Arp was an influential abstract artist, renowned for his innovative career and a member of the Dada art movement. Dadaism was an avant-garde art movement that emerged in the wake of the horrific World War I. Rejecting reason and logic as part of capitalist and bourgeois sensibilities that had caused the war, these artists embraced irrationality and chaos. Their notion of chance was a key component of Arp’s work. For him, his biomorphic sculptures were “born of themselves … I only have to move my hands.…The forms that then take shape offer access to mysteries and reveal to us the profound sources of life.” He typically titled his works only after they were completed. Masque Oiseau playfully reveals both a bird-like shape with outstretched wings and a mask with two eye holes. This sculpture was cast posthumously from his original under his estate’s auspices, which was run by his widow Marguerite Hagenbach-Arp in 1968.
