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A marble sculpture of a figure on a wooden base.

The marble sculpture show a rounded form with a hollowed-out center. The marble is dark with white areas across the surface. The base is thick and gently rounded. The marble forms an arch on one side as part of the hollowed-out center, the figure then rises up and over the hollow. The marble is highly polished. It sits on a wooden base which is square on the bottom, with a bullet-shaped center topped by another square.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.2.A
People
Jean (Hans) Arp, French (Strasbourg, Alsace, Germany 1886 - 1966 Basel)
Title
Shell
Other Titles
Original Language Title: La Coquille
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1938
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/226296

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1310, Modern and Contemporary Art, Surrealism
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Fossiliferous marble
Dimensions
25.8 x 24 x 20 cm (10 3/16 x 9 7/16 x 7 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York], sold; to Lois Orswell, 1949, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1991.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.2.A
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Carola Giedion-Welker, Jean Arp, ed. Milton S. Fox, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, c. 1957)
  • Perry T. Rathbone, European Masters of Our Time, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1957), p. 12, fig. 112, ill. (b/w)
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 2, fig. 34, pp. 75-76, 306, 374

Exhibition History

  • A Century of Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 03/30/1950 - 05/18/1950
  • [Benefit exhibition for the Boston Arts Festival], Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston, 05/08/1956 - 05/29/1956
  • European Masters of Our Time, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 10/10/1957 - 11/17/1957
  • Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
  • Re-View: European and American Art Since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/03/2011 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1310 Surrealism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/14/2015 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu