Comedia del Arp

Comedia del Arp brings together an eclectic array of found objects including grey shoe soles, a dice and parts of a grating device, carefully arranged on the surface of a wooden chopping board to create a shallow relief. Parts of the board have been coloured black. It is an early assemblage attributed to Achill Redo, an alias created by the artist Anthony Hill in 1973.

Achill Redo exhibited collages and assemblages from the 1980s onwards, inspired by a longstanding interest in Dada and Surrealism. [1] This established a distinction between these works and the abstract geometric constructed reliefs and prints for which Hill was well known. However, he recognised them as related strands of his expansive creative practice:

‘If I am introduced to someone as being both a Dadaist and Constructivist I don’t have any objections. But making constructivist type works doesn’t mean that I am a signatory or member of any constructivist outfit. Likewise with Dada: I don’t do Redos in order to get labelled Dada, nor are Redos done in the shadow of Dada. Redos are Formalist, although in a different way from the constructive works I make.’ [2]

Redo exhibited Comedia del Arp at Angela Flowers Gallery in 1983. Photographs from this time show that Redo consequently changed the composition by expanding and sharpening the edges of the black areas in the bottom left hand corner of the work, which had previously been angled, curved and less prominent. The date on the back of the relief has also been changed to 1981 – 1985. Michael Morris purchased Comedia del Arp from Anthony Hill in 1985.

Lisa Newby, March 2021

[1] Achill Redo exhibited in London at the Knoedler (Kasmin) Gallery in 1980, at Angela Flowers Gallery in 1983 and 1989, and at the Mayor Gallery in 1994.

[2] Achill Redo, Redo Times: Francisaviour Redo’s Show Botch the Wordie, exh. cat. (London: Angela Flowers Gallery, 1989), pp.7-8.