Composition

Currently not on view

Composition

1934

Jean Hélion (French, 1904–1987)

With its cluster of distinct but overlapping shapes floated against a field consisting of flat strips or panels, Composition is an emblematic statement of its maker’s larger ideas on the evolution of painting in the twentieth century. According to Jean Hélion, a modern approach required that the painter abandon the representation of three-dimensional space and assert the picture field as a flat, right-angled surface. This shift, in turn, made possible a new concept of painted figures as collections of abstract components in a state of capillarity, or surface tension. For Hélion, this elimination of weight and gravity completed the process of sweeping away outdated pictorial methods based in old-fashioned realism. With that change accomplished, the painter’s task was to explore potentially endless arrangements of elements of various shapes, sizes, and colors in a new state of equilibrium or balance.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Composition

Date:

1934

Artist:

Jean Hélion (French, 1904–1987)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

14 × 10 3/4 inches (35.6 × 27.3 cm) Framed: 22 1/2 × 19 1/8 × 2 7/8 inches (57.2 × 48.6 × 7.3 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1945

Accession Number:

1945-91-3

Geography:

Made in France, Europe

Provenance

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Currently not on view