Continous light in Movement

  • Artist: Julio Le Parc
  • Creation date: 1968
  • Object type: Sculpture

On display: Room 078 The Collection Exhibition - Optical shock

About

Movement is the very essence of kinetic art, whose heyday was in the 1960s, though its roots stretched back to the constructivism and Dadaism of the early twentieth century. Julio LeParc was a leading practitioner of kinetic sculpture, not least through his participation in the Groupe de la Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) in Paris in the 1960s. Calling for the artist’s role to change, the group’s manifesto boldly rejected the static picture: art was rather to be dynamic and involve the viewer in an interactive manner. Op-art and kinetic art became the experimental solution for how to transcend the established system of art.

Le Parc regarded his artistic endeavour as a type of research, studying in particular the lighting effects that occur when a sculpture is in movement. Continuel Lumière Mobile was acquired by the museum after it was shown at the “Visual Environment 1: Lightand Movement” exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo in 1969. The one-metre-high, wall-mounted sculpture consists of a rectangular metal plate that has been painted white. Thin strings with small, circular bits of Plexiglas have been fastened in rows in front of the white plate. The strings hang freely, and the slightest puff of wind causes them to move. Lights fixed to the plate’s upper and lower edges illuminate the circles. The combination of movement and light in the freely hanging strings and circles heightens the lighting effects, creating an illusion of weightlessness in the seemingly levitated Plexiglas circles. This simple non-mechanical movement has much in common with the mobiles and sculptures of Alexander Calder.

Text: Benedikte Lita Engen

From "Highlights. Art from 1945 to the Present", Nasjonalmuseet 2016, ISBN 978-82-8154-116-0

Artist/producer

Julio Le Parc

Visual artist

Born 1928

Work info

Creation date:
1968
Other titles:
Continuel Lumière Mobile (FRA)
Kontinuerlig lys i bevegelse (NOR)
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
stål, rustfritt stål, nylon, lys
Dimensions:
  • Width: 100 cm
  • Height: 100 cm
  • Depth: 19 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Acquisition:
Purchased 1969
Inventory no.:
MS-02959-1988
Part of exhibition:
Kunst 2, 2005 - 2007
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Annar Bjørgli
Copyright:
© Le Parc, Julio/BONO