Torso and Navels

Woodren relief

70 x 62 cm

Thee navels dance around a human body whose form is so abstract as to be almost unrecognisable. The outline of the elliptical elements corresponds to the archetype of Arp's visual imagery: the moving oval – a universal, cosmic form, which can symbolise both a navel and at the same time an egg or even planetary rings. From the 1920s in particular, when Arp developed his unique object language, the navel, which, like the egg, symbolises the source of all life, moved into the central focus of his creative work. During this time Arp very frequently varies the two motifs, torso and navel, in his reliefs.