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The collage reproduced here dates from 1950. It is typical of the work done with coloured stickers. The shapes seem to float very freely on the blue surface. A dance begins, the wind blows on the small pieces of paper. However, this little collage loses none of the structural rigour which Marcelle Cahn insisted on as of 1925. Looking closer , we realize that the support for this collage is a sheet of blue stickers. With its shapes of diamonds,triangles,squares,circles close together, the sheet becomes the composition of the work...And as if the slight wear that the paper has undergone at the hands of the artist once again reinforced the structure formed by the edges of the stickers in the background. Here the support is important ; it is already composed ; it already gives a dominating colour,this slightly worn blue ; but it is also a reservoir of shapes. The shapes of the stickers removed in the bottom right-hand corner make us realize that it would be possible to find these stickers in other collages done at the same time. The geometric shapes are constantly moved, looking for a rhythm which is neither repetitive nor mechanical but rather lively, light, full of imagination. In the same collage, certain shapes move : the slightly shaded circle at the bottom on the left appears to come from the row of circles at the top ; a diamond shape is projected from the top on the right, partially covers its neighbour and associates itself with the others in order to give a direction. A built-up sturcture, a mechanical cutting out of stickers and a disconcerting freedom of their movements and associations. Precarious balance, tension. As Marie Luise Syring says, Marcelle Cahn ‘ creates a dialectic counterpart with only the utilitarian side of things. These are reconstructions ; it’s a rebuilt world.’ (1) The artist rebuilds the world with bits of reality, the very smallest things become the most vast. Stéphane Mroczkowski (1) Marie Luise Syring, "Du purisme à l'abstraction puriste", translation by Inge Hanneforth, catalogue, Paris, Galerie Lahumière, 1997. |
Untitled, 1950 |
