Composition / Sun in the Center

1918

Arnold Topp

Associated Names
Arnold Topp

Artist, German, 1887 - 1945

The image displays a complex array of jagged and curved black shapes interspersed with organic lines and dotted patterns. This abstract composition resembles a chaotic mosaic or a fragment of a shattered stained glass window, with some shapes resembling stars, waves, and serrated blades. The arrangement of elements hints at familiar forms such as radiating suns or floral motifs emerging from a chaotic swirl. The image invites the viewer to see the familiar in its maze of black and beige contrasts.
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    linocut on wove tissue paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

  • Dimensions

    plate: 15.8 × 20.3 cm (6 1/4 × 8 in.)
    sheet: 31 × 40.6 cm (12 3/16 × 16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2012.92.488

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Enders 2007, no. 18.Ls.4, State only

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Jörg Maass Kunsthandel, Berlin); Ruth Kainen, Washington, D.C., purchased November 5, 2003; Gift to NGA, 2012.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2007

  • Enders, Rainer. Arnold Topp, ein Lebensbild. Weimar : Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 2007: no. 18.Ls.4, only

Inscriptions

below image, in graphite: Original-Holzschnitt. (Handdruck). Arnold Topp 18.; on verso, in graphite, by later hand: 2097/LXXXVII

Wikidata ID

Q76557036

You may be interested in

Loading Results