Constant: Space + Colour: From Cobra to New Babylon Paperback – November 22, 2016 by Trudy Nieuwenhuijs-Van Der Horst (Author), Laura Stamps (Author), Ludo van Halem (Editor), Constant (Artist); NAi010 Publishers

Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920–2005), known as Constant, was a founding member of the Cobra group and the Situationist International, and the artist behind the utopian architectural New Babylon project.

This publication examines his practice in the 1950s and his transition from Cobra to New Babylon. In this decade, the fantasy figures of Constant’s Cobra period were followed by abstract painting, a transition from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional plane with the architectural models and sketches made for the New Babylon project, and ultimately a return to painting with the color experiments that he pursued from 1969 until his death in 2005.

Constant: Space + Colour gathers rarely seen works alongside a short selection of texts written between 1949 and 1965, which provide a glimpse into the radical transformations of these years.

Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys (often referred to simply as “Constant”) cofounded CoBrA, an artistic movement that emerged in the wake of WWII’s destruction. CoBrA disbanded in 1951, and Constant then began developing his vision of a utopia he called New Babylon. From 1956 to 1974, Constant produced paintings, models, maps, prints, and drawings to illustrate his vision of this new, idealized society, in which humans, no longer forced to work for their survival, could revel in freedom and play. Constant: Space + Colour traces his transformation over the decades, presenting his artwork alongside essays on its historical context and interpretation. Particularly interesting is the conversation between Rem Koolhaas and Pascal Gielen, discussing Constant’s New Babylon, architecture, and the concept of the homo ludens (“the man at play”).