Ib Geertsen, installation view of “Ib Geertsen – Mobiler”

Ib Geertsen

Aarhus, Denmark

ARoS Aarhus Kuntsmuseum

In a lifetime of visiting galleries and artists’ studios, I can’t remember an exhibition provoking the immediate reaction of sheer joyousness prompted by “Ib Geertsen—Mobiler” with its multitude of extraordinarily colorful and imaginatively displayed mobiles. Under current curatorial practice, individual artworks usually receive their own spaces so they can be viewed without compromise; but stepping into a single long gallery containing nearly 50 works permitted one to confront a wonderful, riotous confusion of slowly moving objects. After the initial impression, one could focus on each one separately.

Moveable Cone Sculpture
 (1989), a brilliant orange-red conical structure, immediately commanded attention. The cone wasn’t quite symmetrical since one side was opened by a penetrating slit. A slender yellow wire swinging freely from the pinnacle swept into space, supporting a descending array of five slowly moving half-circles at one end. The color was vibratingly joyous, the proportions of solid cone to linear wire unexpected…see the entire review in the print version of September’s magazine.