The Star 1960

Jean Arp made 'The Star' sculpture sometime during his lifetime. I'm just imagining Arp in his studio, wrestling with form, trying to coax a new shape into being. The sculpture is like a dance, a playful negotiation between curves and edges. It's solid but also seems to float, with this mysterious hole, an invitation for your eye to wander through. Arp's work is deeply connected to nature, to the biomorphic shapes that surround us. When you look at this form, what does it evoke for you? Is it the way a plant reaches for sunlight, or the curves of the human body? His work reminds me of painters like Joan Miró. It's all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, about capturing the essence of life in simple, elegant forms. And that's something all us artists try to do, in one way or another.