The Star 1960

This sculpture called ‘The Star’ was made by Jean Arp, we don’t know exactly when, but he made it with some stone material, maybe plaster. There’s something so playful about how Arp coaxes these curving forms from the stone, it’s like he’s inviting the material to become something new. The whole thing feels balanced, but also a little precarious. The way the light catches the surface makes me think of bone, but it’s also like some weird cartoon figure, something soft and alive. I keep coming back to that hole in the middle, how it creates this tension between solid and void, presence and absence. It’s like looking at a landscape and only seeing a tiny portion of it through a small gap. Arp was pals with folks like Joan Miró, and you can see some similar vibes in the way they both messed with biomorphic shapes. But where Miró is all about colour, Arp keeps it simple, focusing on form and texture. For me, it's a reminder that art is all about the conversation between artists across time.