Terrain Vague

In the period 1957-1969 the central occupation of Constant was constructing New Babylon, the Utopian theories and architectural designs in order to transform the existing society. After that he started painting again. This new phase cannot be seen isolated from New Babylon. From 1969 on the architectural compositions continue to play an important part in Constant's oeuvre, alternated with a.o. the so called Terrains vagues. Terrain vague and New Babylon pictures are, in iconographical sense, closely connected. On the one hand, a Terrain vague is generally seen a a precondition of New Babylon, or to put it in another way, a New Babylon under construction, itself a precondition of a creative living environment. On the other hand, following the then recent Vietnam events and Constant's own war pictures from 1952 (called Scorched earth), it can be interpreted as the destruction of New Babylon. In short, as life and destruction. Terrain vague and New Babylon are in this manner complementary.

See colour illustration