El comienzo, el cimiento, la simiente latente
Arnaldo Coen
The Beginning, the Basis, the Latent Seed
In 1967, after a trip to Paris, Arnaldo Coen invoked a recurring element in his work: the female torso. The visible faces of this three-dimensional piece, which consists of 3 wooden prisms piled up on top of each other, exemplify his obsession.
Each side reveals a different sculptural treatment of the torso, with flat colors and geometric elements consistent with pop and op: visual vocabularies that the artist would incorporate into his work in the late ’60s and ’70s.
The piece is strikingly playful, allowing the viewer to rearrange all parts and faces to produce different combinations. It shares an affinity with the structuralist exploration that its title borrows from the first lines of Blanco (1967) by Octavio Paz.
ARNALDO COEN (1940)
El comienzo, el cimiento, la simiente latente, 1968
The Beginning, the Basis, the Latent Seed
3 elements. Acrylic on wood
Acquisition through the SHCP Pago en Especie program, 2014
