opaque; human silhouettes wander across it apparently aimlessly and without any in-
teraction. The colors are shades of gray and beige, with white brightening the scene
from time to time. In Ladderlabyrinth(1971) the dominating color scheme is a sort of
yellow with orange hues, combined with pink and bright yellow (figure 83). The spa-
tial organization is even more confused than in Ode à l’Odéonbecause there are no
longer any long sight lines here; a deliberate ambiguity seems to be built into the
placing of surfaces and lines. The two indistinct pink and gray silhouettes dominat-
ing the painting would seem to be linked with each other by invisible threads of de-
sire. Sexual connotations make an appearance here—something that is lacking in the
previous New Babylon work.
Constant’s gesture of farewell to New Babylon might be found in a painting
from 1973 entitled Terrain vague(figure 84). An almost apocalyptically vacated space
4
Architecture as Critique of Modernity84
Constant, Terrain vague, 1973.
(Collection Gemeentemuseum,
The Hague.)