Arne Jones

Arne Jones (1914-1976) was one of the members of the artist group that came to be known as the "men of 1947". A group of artists who, often with a concrete expression in their works, had an agenda to spread the new art into public spaces. 1947 was also the year when it was decided to allocate 1% of the construction cost for art in all state building projects. In 1960, Arne Jones created a work he called Encercle: sketch for an adjustable universe. It was not a mobile in the strict sense as it did not move, but it could change appearance through various settings. It was constructed from spherical brass bands where each ring had an individual suspension, allowing them to be rotated and arranged in a multitude of constellations. A sphere in the centre was surrounded by a circuit of others, which symbolised planetary orbits around the earth. A version of the auction's sculpture ”Ställbart Universum” ended up in the collections of Sydsvenska Dagbladet in Malmö. The universe was created during the optimistic 1960s of astronomers, physicists, and space heroes. That Jones chose space and the universe as the starting point for his work was certainly very much in tune with the times. Just two years after the monumental 6-metre-high version "Universe" was installed at Frösunda Centre, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.