Pliage (Folded Painting) 1971

Editor: Andre-Pierre Arnal's "Pliage (Folded Painting)" from 1971 is really something! I think it's made with mixed media, and there’s something so satisfying about the simple geometric shapes, but it is quite striking. How do you see this work? Curator: Ah, yes, "Pliage"! It whispers of childhood games, doesn't it? Like folding paper into elaborate shapes, maybe even fortune tellers. The sharp, clean lines contrast beautifully with the slight imperfections of the "fold" – those creases and variations in color hint at the human hand, at process. But that geometric perfection feels almost machine-made. How do you think those shapes play off of one another, symbolically? Editor: Well, the symmetry gives it a sense of balance and order, but then the creases introduce a little bit of chaos. It almost feels like something stable being disrupted, maybe? Curator: Exactly! The disruption *is* the art. This piece breathes with that very tension - that dialectic - between the rigid and the accidental, the controlled and the chaotic. Consider that the “Op Art” movement and ideas around appropriation were gaining momentum in the late '60s and early '70s… could this be read as Arnal "appropriating" or re-contextualizing something simple, even banal like folded paper, and elevating it? Editor: That's a really interesting point; I never considered that before! The fact that he is literally folding the medium itself seems to support that reading. I will think about this. Curator: Precisely. And isn’t that the joy of art? Folding and unfolding layers of meaning.