Arne Jones F662

"I observed, as we worked together, how Jones handled the components and engaged with them. There was never any trace of the seasoned artisan's habitual sense of possession in the movement of his hands. Rather, he seemed inquisitive and contemplative, as though searching for the causes of the material's — and indeed the entire situation’s — resistance. It is when he touches his material that he dances." – Olle Granath

Bukowskis is pleased to present the auction Arne Jones, including 15 works by the artist, all with provenance from the artist's family. In parallel with this online auction, additional pieces from the same collection will be offered in the live auction Modern Art & Design.

Arne Jones' contribution to modern sculpture and to subsequent generations of artists is impossible to overstate. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Swedish culture underwent a generational shift, and Jones emerged as one of sculpture’s foremost advocates. He was a member of the influential artist collective later referred to as "the Men of 1947" — a group of artists who, often through a concretist idiom, sought to carry the message of modern art into the public realm.

Jones challenged the conventions of classical, monolithic sculpture, instead delving into notions of spatiality, voids, and weightlessness. The result, during the 1940s and '50s, was a body of ethereal, ascending forms that appear to defy gravity. Throughout his career, Jones worked thematically, investigating sculptural form in serialized bodies of work such as ”In och ut”, ”Piruett”, ”Treklang”, ”Avstånd – närheter” among others.

In the 1970s, Jones turned to the Yin-Yang series, described by Rolf Söderberg as follows: *"Within Jones thematic framework "Förskjutningar av Närheter” (Displacements of Proximities) reside several works, including the torso series Yin-Yang, developed between 1965 and 1970. Yin-Yang is the Chinese symbol of dualism — an emblem universally recognized for its compact and evocative representation of unity versus division, black versus white, light versus shadow. [...] Yin-Yang comprises constructions of prefabricated metal rods, symmetrically stacked yet displaced in a spiral rhythm toward elevation. Once again, it was a matter of bending the technocratic toward the human."