Catalogue of the exhibition Constant. Ruimte + Kleur at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art Amstelveen, May 28-September 25, 2016.
This publication sheds light on an important period in Constant's artistic practice, the period between the end of the CoBrA group and the start of his New Babylon project. As an artist in the fifties Constant sought new means to contribute to the reconstruction of society after the devastation of the Second World War. Important developments in urban development and technology were reflected in his work. Constant saw possibilities for intensive collaboration between visual artists and architects in the spatial effect that colors have. His ideal was a merging of different disciplines into a new art form that would occupy itself with the entire human living space (habitat). He explored new fields and media and also attempted to redefine his position as an artist by entering into collaborations with different artists and designers.
Together with Gerrit Rietveld he worked on a model interior exhibited at the manifestation Color Harmony in Your Home in the Bijenkorf in 1954. With Aldo van Eyck he worked on A Space in Color on the occasion of the exhibition Man and House in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1952. Together with the American experimental filmmaker Hy Hirsh, Constant made the film Gyromorphosis (1958), shown at his first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1959.