Extracts of: Jean Arp or the law of chance
(Philipe Dagen, Article - Le Monde - November, 2008)

    ... He is held at the first moment, in the shape such as it appears, in the erotic intuition of the hand, in the immediate find of the eye, at the chance. He wants to master the least possible not to lose what there is of explorations in the creation ...

Squares arranged according to the laws of chance (1916 - 1917)

    Is it necessary to be held at the chance in its most fortuitous shape? Is it necessary, as it is often written, to believe that Jean Arp stuck or paints the shapes as they appeared after an unexpected fall? Or is it necessary to believe that it is a little more complex, that the artist has all the same a certain control of his creation?

Composition

... Or the use of the golden section

Squares

Two vertical axes and two horizontal axes placed according to the golden section of the side of the rectangle bound the position of the shapes and create a symmetry. The elements of the height answer those of the bottom as those of left to those of right.

Other vertical cuts, always according to the golden section, complete the positioning of the shapes.

The same principle is once again applied...

Then, what was made on vertical lines can be reproduced on the horizontal.
So every shape meets positioned even sized by this covering. Let us pledge that we could pursue it more finely to complete this composition, but it would be boring.

The same principle applies somewhere else?

Floated wood - Collage

The same principle of covering by the golden section. Elements take place around these lines.

Reliefs

Let us apply the golden sections to the vertical and horizontal according to the same principle as previously.

Then the secondary sections on 2 axes.

Reliefs position thanks to these axes, more freely certainly than in the case of the previous rectangles but in connection with the same principle of distribution on the surface and of symmetry.

Entombment of the Birds and Butterflies (Head of Tzara) (1916 - 1917)

On this shape free of frame, let us draw a rectangle with the big side and the small side in the golden report. This rectangle frames the internal shapes.

Then let us apply the same axes as previously to the golden sections. The right shape is so positioned.

Let us draw then a square having for side the big side of the rectangle and positioned at an equal distance of the left-hand side of the rectangle that the distance between this side of the rectangle and the main axis of the golden section (distances located by the green segment). This square frames the right shape.

A set of diagonals leaning on the outside square and the intersections of the horizontal and vertical axes frame the outside shape of the work.

This work free of frame bases in fact on a double structure of frames, one to structure the inside of the work, one to draw the outside.

Squares arranged according to the laws of chance (1916 - 1917)

Collage of papers on yellowed cardboard

The usual golden sections structure the work and bring out a symmetry.

Horizontal secondary axes which bound in height certain elements.

For example, a vertical secondary axis which props up a diagonal bounding elements of the picture on the right.

The distance between two horizontal axes (located by a light blue, upper left segment) meets in several heights of elements of the picture.

If we resume this distance and what we calculate a bigger distance according to the golden report, we find, in example, the length of several vertical elements (located by two big light blue segments).

Now, if we take the distance between both superior axes (located by the green segment), we find it as size of several elements.
They are examples, by looking, we would find certainly the others in the same logic there.

All these elements in coherence which we find spread in the work are so many examples of repetitive coincidences.

Then, because everything is placed, divided, according to a structured approach and calculated reports of sizes, what are these laws of chance? Certainly not the pure and simple chance, quite this demonstration proves it.

And here, the unifying principle is indeed the composition...
Poursuivons en reprenant un commentaire sur le poème de Tzara "Pour faire un poème dadaïste" Let us continue in resuming a comment on the poem of Tzara " To make a Dadaist poem "

The same comment can be applied to the work of Arp. The realized work does not follow the laws of chance to located the wave of one's hand of the artist dictated by chance.

And to finish, that there are Sophie Taeuber's pictures?

Sophie Taeuber

Let us apply the golden sections to the vertical and horizontal according to the same principle as previously

Here also, the golden section organizes and gives its breath to this work.
So, both artists also shared their principle of construction of a picture.

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