Shirt Front and Fork

1922

Jean (Hans) Arp

Artist, French, born Germany (Alsace), 1886 - 1966

A cartoonish tooth-like form and a fork float against a roughly oval field in this abstracted wooden sculpture. Presumably the shirt front of the sculpture's title, the tooth-like form takes up the left half of the composition. It has a rounded top with two pointed root-like legs below, and has two dots like eyes near the top. The fork to our right points downward and the four tines are cut off by the bottom edge of the composition. The shirt front, dots, and fork are carved and painted nickel gray so they look like thick outlines in low relief. The background to our left and over the shirt front is black. The area between the shirt front and fork is dark gray, and the field to our right of the fork is silvery gray. The sculpture hangs on a white wall, and it casts a narrow shadow from the bottom edge.
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On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery 415-B

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    painted wood

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 58.4 x 70 x 6.1 cm (23 x 27 9/16 x 2 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1983.3.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dr. Nordman, Strasburg. (Galerie de Beaune, Paris); Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York, by 1941;[1] (sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 16 February 1950, no. 43). George Heard Hamilton, Williamstown, Massachusetts, by 1958;[2] purchased 11 March 1983 by NGA.
[1] Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., exh. cat., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1941: no. 1.
[2] Arp, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958: 38.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1941

  • Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1941, no. 1

1967

  • Space and Dream, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1967, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1983

  • Arp: The Dada Reliefs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, brochure, repro.

1986

  • Arp 1886-1966, traveling exhibition, 6 venues, 1986-1988, no. 90 (shown only at first three venues: Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart; Musée d'Art Moderne de Strasbourg; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris).

2005

  • Dada, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005-2006, no. 348, repro.

  • Dada, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005 - 2006, no. 348.

2008

  • Art is Arp, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg; Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, 2008-2009, no. 145, repro.

2014

  • Der Arp ist da! 100 Jahre Freundschaft Hans Arp und Maxt Ernst,, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, 2014-2015, unnumbered catalogue, repro..

2015

  • Marvelous Objects: Surrealist Sculpture from Paris to New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, 2015-2016, fig. 13.

2018

  • The Nature of Arp, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, Venice, 2018-2019, pl. 14.

Bibliography

1958

  • Soby, James Thrall, ed. Arp. New York, 1958:30-32, repro.

1967

  • Hamilton, George Heard. Painting and Sculpture in Europe. Baltimore, 1967:313, repro. 176.

1968

  • Rubin, William S. Dada and Surrealist Art. New York, 1968:256.

1981

  • Rau, Bernd. Jean Art: The Reliefs. Catalogue of Complete Works. New YYork, 1981: no. 39,

1989

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: repro. 38, 39.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 23, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q63860895

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