(Before anything I would like to thank Silvia for the comment on my Antony Gormley post. )Paul Neagu was born in Romania in 1938 and died in London in 2004. From his body of work, I have chosen the Hyphen pieces for their striking first impression and for the implications in meaning and the written word. Neagu has been considered the most important Romanian artist since Brancusi.
"Hyphen, from the Greek 'hyph' hen," means "under one" or "into one," that is, "together." The hyphen is a connector, linking elements usually thought of as antithetical and irreconcilable It thus accomplishes a kind of miracle, bringing together what ordinarily seems to exist autonomously and apart, and creating something new in the process. Indeed, it has been argued that such a seemingly absurd process is creativity in dialectical action: things that don't seem meant to work together unexpectedly do so, to the enlightenment and benefit of everyone, What seemed unnatural and impossible suddenly becomes normal and predictable.
But Paul Neagu's hyphen raises an important question: does the hyphen force the union, as it were, or does it merely propose and suggest its possibility? Does it express the wish for togetherness or its reality? Does the hyphen acknowledge an inherent tendency to unity among incommensurate things - but not necessarily its realization does the hyphen convey the actuality and durability of unity? Neagu's hyphen construction is intriguing by reason of its absurdity. On the one hand, it is a convincing unity - a kind of occult balance - of ostensibly incongruous parts: three legs curving toward the ground and ending in clawlike points, support a large rectangle. On the other hand, the discrepancy between the parts is glaring, to the extent that we feel the construction is about to fail apart or lose its balance arid collapse - that it is all too tentative. And yet it is stable enough, however much it stands precariously on tiptoe, like a bizarre ballet dancer poised to spring - the elongated third leg, attached to the center of one side of the rectangle, is a kind of leap of faith in itself - and however tense the relationship between its parts.
The beginning of an interesting article on Neagu's Hyphens,"Paul Neagu's Hyphen Sculptures" by Donald Kuspit.
An obsession for the Hyphen shape: "Influenced in part by Cubism, Marcel Duchamp and Brancusi, these geometric, skeletal forms in materials ranging from wood to steel suggest completion as well as connection. The bold visual language of each sculpture is cyclical and self-sufficient, while simultaneously providing a platform for further possibility. A natural tension exists in the dramatic, precarious balance of the anatomical constructions, for they seem to stand not as results of logic, but as a scaffold of symbolism." (from here)
Neagu himself has stated about the hyphen: "Hyphen is my recurrent instrument of work as the plough is for the farmer. Conceptually it relates the essence of the earth to the body of man and to the ideas of the harvest’" (from here).
"Sooner or later, anyone approaching Paul Neagu’s sculpture is bound to experience the challenge of his Hyphens. The prototype resembled an unconventional workbench or an easel for making objects or drawings. It was first exhibited in 1975 at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, where it generated much attention and curiosity. After that, the artist’s destiny changed. As if obsessed with the idea of his Hyphen being analogous to creation, he re-created the image in hundreds of drawings and scores of sculptural variations. For more than three decades, Neagu returned tirelessly to the theme of the three-legged table. His early variations, which were made in wood, show evident phallic properties. Using a subtle, playful approach, he alludes to the simple idea of the phallus as a coupling feature, a hyphen between two material entities.", from here.
Completion and connection. On and off.
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