Daniel Spoerri — Le Danger de la Multiplication, c. 1970

Artist: Daniel Spoerri (b. 1930, Galați – d. 2024, Vienna)

Title: Le Danger de la Multiplication

Year: c. 1970

Medium: Plexiglass box with assembled objects (mixed media)

Dimensions: 46 × 46 × 11 cm

Edition: Numbered edition of 13 + 1 artist’s proof

Signature: Signed and numbered

Condition: Very good condition; minor signs of age consistent with period; no restorations

Provenance: Private collection, Belgium

With Le Danger de la Multiplication, Daniel Spoerri encapsulates one of the central tensions within his oeuvre: the fragile boundary between order and accumulation.

Encased within a transparent plexiglass box, the work presents a contained yet dynamic constellation of objects — at once controlled and on the verge of proliferation. Spoerri, a key figure of Nouveau Réalisme, is best known for his “snare-pictures”, in which fragments of everyday life are fixed and preserved. Here, that gesture evolves into something more conceptual: a reflection on repetition, multiplication, and the subtle anxiety embedded in abundance.

The title itself — Le Danger de la Multiplication — suggests both irony and critique. What begins as structure risks becoming excess; what is ordered may tip into entropy. The work thus operates between sculpture and thought, between object and system.

Unlike Spoerri’s more spontaneous table works, this piece carries a certain clarity and restraint. The plexiglass enclosure functions not only as protection, but as a conceptual boundary — isolating the elements while simultaneously heightening their presence. It invites the viewer to observe, almost clinically, the mechanisms of accumulation.

Produced in a very limited edition (13 pieces, all sized differently)  and, the work occupies a rare position within Spoerri’s practice: a multiple that retains the intensity and individuality of a unique object.