Vers le blanc infini

Jean Arp is a pioneer in abstract art. His entire oeuvre spanned sculptures, drawings, and books, all of which exhibited the same stylistic cohesion. Arp was particularly known for his use of organic shapes, such as those of leaves and plants. Biomorphic forms are also a principal feature in this book of eight poems accompanied by eight etches, which was published towards the end of Arp’s life. The etches are executed in black and white and innumerable shades of gray – a palette Arp used to emphasize the textual nature of the image. Arp once said: ‘There is in me a certain need for communicating with human beings. Black and white equals writing.’ In contrast to his early poems which were largely surrealist, the poems contained in this volume are far more lyrical in nature.