Documentation

In this text Constant reflects on the current state of the arts.

Photo of Constant with his daughters Eva and Martha at Artis, Amsterdam ca 1957.                                                                         NB: We do not have a version fit for print of this image    

De eerste tekenen (The first signs) for “Phasen” exhibition, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, in Liga Bulletin, June 1957.Phasen was a group exhibition with Shinkichi Tajiri and Anton Rooskens curated by Willem Sandberg.

Review Dutch Pavillion of the 28th Venice Biennial, 1956.

Review of the 28th Biennale in Venice with some crushing remarks about Constant's work.

Announcement of 28th Biennale of Venice, 1956

Announcement of 28th Venice Biennial, 1956

About 28th Venice Biennial, 1956

Congres du mouvement pour un Bauhau imaginistes, Alba 1956. F.l.t.r. Wolman, Jorn, Constant, E. Verone, Gallizio, Sotsass, Piero Simondo.

Constant with his family in Milan, 1956. F.l.t.r: Eva, Victor, Constant's second wife, Nellie Riemens, and Constant. NB: Not available in high res!

Demain la poésie logera la vie (Tomorrow Life Resides in Poetry), lecture dated Paris, 19 August 1956, written as a lecture to be given at the Primo congresso mondiale degli artisti liberi (First World Congress of Free Artists), organized by Asger Jorn and Pinot Gallizio for Mouvement Internationale pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste contre un Bauhaus Imaginaire (M.I.B.I.), held in Alba (I), 2-8 September 1956.Dutch title: In poezië zullen wij huizen. The typed manuscript is in the Constant archive at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD).

Disclosure of ‘Pivotting Construction'(destroyed), made for the municipal housing company in Amsterdam, 1956

Fltr: Ettore Sottsas, Gil Wolman, Elena Verona, Asger Jorn and Constant at restaurant Bruno during the congress Mouvement pour un Bauhaus imaginiste in Alba 1956.

Alba, 1956

This hitherto unpublished text by Constant probably dates from 1956. Thematically it has a strong affinity with ‘Tomorrow Life Will Reside in Poetry’ from the same year.

Ruimtecircus [I] (1956-1961), photographed by Bram Wisman in 1956.  For some models—including this one—the year of production is a period, either because it is an estimation or because adjustments were made to the model later on. 

NB: We do not have a version fit for print of this image

Pinot Gallizio with the gypsies at their camp on the river banks of river Tanaro in Alba, 1956. NB: Not available in high res!

Photomontage by Jan Versnel, Amsterdam. Circa 1961. Constant's Ruimtecircus projected on Museumplein with the Rijksmuseum in the background, circa 1961