virtual museum of modernism nrw

Henri Laurens
Le Grand Amphion // Great Amphion, 1952
Sculpture
Bronze
226 x 67 x 67 cm

Henri Laurens' figure Great Amphion (1952) rises from a pentagonal plinth, one of whose edges is extended forward. It is less the body statics than the transitory dynamics which constitute the organic presence of this figure whose head, trunk, and limbs appear to be made of amorphous matter. The kneeling body seems to be dominated by an upward movement finding its closure in the arms folded at the top. The hands intertwine before the beak-like head into a loosely-spun lattice that suggests an ambiguous meaning. It symbolizes the lyre as well as the hands playing it. The motif of the musical instrument can again be found on the trunk where vertical bars, similar to the cords of a harp or the fluting of a column, structure the figure. The association with an instrument or architectonic element is reinforced by a bulging hollow space behind it. This inner structure could thus be seen as a kind of resonator or a tambour.

The pattern for such a synthesis of body, music, and architecture is derived from a Greek myth that provided the narrative for the fashioning of the figure. In a letter from 1953, addressed to architect Villanueva, Laurens himself talked about the mythical Amphion as follows: "In ancient Greece the legend of Amphion claimed that through the melodious sounds of his lyre the walls of Thebes rose and the stones found their place all by themselves. It was a synthesis of music and architecture" (qtd. in Ch. Lichtenberg, in: Ausst.-Kat. Hannover 1985). Amphion is said to have been the inventor of music. The son of Antiope and Zeus had a twin brother, Zethos, and the brothers were considered the embodiment of "practical" (Zethos) and "theoretical / contemplative" (Amphion) life. Thus they built the walls of Thebes in two different ways. While Zethos erected them through his intense activity, Amphion just played on his lyre and the stones formed a wall on their own.

In the sculpture of Amphion the viewer recognizes Laurens' interest in the material fusion of musical and architectonic principles of form. The body forms an inner space that can also be seen as an essential part of Laurens' sculptural work: "…taking possession of space, the construction of an object through cavities and volume, through fullness and emptiness, their alternating and contrasting, the ongoing, mutual tension, and – finally – their balance" (W. Hofmann, in: Ausst.-Kat. Kaiserslautern 1975).

After 1925, moving away from his earlier work, Laurens increasingly turned to biomorphous, organic structures that culminate in his later work from the mid-1930s onward. This change was probably due to the influence of the surrealists and Picasso. The Great Amphion was preceded by the otherwise identical Small Amphion (1937), where Laurens already took up a topic that is also familiar to Cubism: the human body turning into a musical instrument. Ossip Zadkine dealt with a similar motif with his Orpheus (1948). Laurens created a version of his work that is 4.40 m in height for the University of Caracas, Venezuela.

T.R.