Arp viewed chance as a means of access, through the unconscious, to the basic ordering processes of the natural world. He declared that “these works, like nature, were ordered ‘according to the law of chance’” and arranged “automatically, without will.” The artist’s conscious arrangement, however, did play a crucial role. For Arp, “chance” was a liberating idea, a method of beginning a work of art that evaded traditional composition but did not avoid it.
Gallery label from 2020
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Philip Johnson, New York. 1949 - 1970
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Philip Johnson, 1970
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