Composition
- Date
- 1933
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- made in
- Virginia, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Paintings
- Collection
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 211
- Dimensions
- 19 1/8 x 24 in. (48.6 x 61 cm)
framed: 19 3/4 x 24 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (50.2 x 62.9 x 3.8 cm) - Credit Line
- Bequest of Mrs. Letticia Parker Williams by exchange
- Rights
- © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY / ADAGP, Paris
- Object Number
- 11:1946
NOTES
Semicircles, parabolas, and gently curved quadrilaterals adjoin and overlap against a white ground, as if the forms were floating through space. Jean Hélion was a leading figure in promoting abstraction in 1930s Paris and a founder-member of Art Concret, the first French avant-garde group devoted to pure abstraction. Hélion, who began his career as an architectural draftsman, was a great admirer of artist Piet Mondrian but departed from the Dutch master by exploring the complexities of curved forms.
Provenance
- 1946
Theodore Schempp, New York, NY, USA [1]
1946 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Theodore Schempp [2]
Notes:
This was painted in 1933 while Hélion was living in Virginia, USA, and is signed on the reverse "Hélion Va 1933" [photograph of inscription on verso, SLAM document files].
[1] Purchased by the Museum from Theodore Schempp with funds from the Letticia Parker Williams bequest [invoice dated March 5, 1946, SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, February 7, 1946.
Theodore Schempp, New York, NY, USA [1]
1946 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Theodore Schempp [2]
Notes:
This was painted in 1933 while Hélion was living in Virginia, USA, and is signed on the reverse "Hélion Va 1933" [photograph of inscription on verso, SLAM document files].
[1] Purchased by the Museum from Theodore Schempp with funds from the Letticia Parker Williams bequest [invoice dated March 5, 1946, SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, February 7, 1946.
We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.