Arp, Jean (or Hans Arp) (1886–1966). French sculptor, painter, and poet who was prominently involved with several major avant-garde groups and movements in the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Strasbourg, then under German rule, and he spoke French and German with equal fluency (he wrote poetry in both languages). His initial training was at the School of Arts and Crafts in Strasbourg, after which he studied at the Weimar Academy and briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris (1908). He spent the next few years mainly in Switzerland, working in isolation, but in 1912 he met Robert and Sonia Delaunay in Paris and Kandinsky in Munich, where he participated in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition. In 1915 he moved to Zurich, where he was one of the founders of the Dada movement and met his future wife Sophie Taeuber (they married in 1922), with whom he collaborated in experiments with cut-out paper compositions and collages (see AUTOMATISM). During the war years in Zurich he also made his first abstract polychrome relief carvings in wood (Dada Relief, Kunsthaus, Basle, 1916). In 1919–20 he lived in Cologne, where he continued his Dada activities in collaboration with his friend Max Ernst.

From 1920 Arp worked mainly in Paris and in 1928 he settled at nearby Meudon. From 1925 he participated in the Surrealist movement, his work including experiments with chance arrangements. He joined Cercle et Carré in 1930 and he was a founder member of Abstraction-Création in 1931. Also in 1931 he took up sculpture in the round (previously he had made only reliefs) and began to produce what are now his most familiar and distinctive works—sensuous abstract pieces (usually in bronze or marble) that convey a suggestion of organic forms without reproducing actual plant or animal shapes (Growth, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1938). ‘I tried to make forms grow', he wrote, ‘I put my trust in the example of seeds, stars, clouds, plants, animals, men, and finally in my innermost being.’

During the Second World War Arp fled to Grasse on the French Riviera, where he and his wife lived with Sonia Delaunay and Alberto Magnelli, 1941–2: ‘For two years we lived in that wonderful place … Despite the horror of those years, I look back on this period of work with my friends as one of the finest experiences of my life. Never was there a trace of vanity, arrogance, rivalry.’ By 1942, however, the south of France was becoming unsafe, so Arp fled to Switzerland, where his wife died in an accident in 1943. He returned to Meudon in 1946 and in 1959 bought a house near Locarno in Switzerland (coinciding with his happy second marriage to Marguerite Hagenbach, a Swiss collector of his work). In his post-war work he did not seriously add to his earlier achievements, but he won many honours and prestigious public commissions; in 1954, for example he was awarded the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 1958 he made a relief for the Unesco building in Paris. Large retrospective exhibitions of his work were held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1958 and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 1962.

Herbert Read writes of him: ‘Arp was a man distinguished by simplicity, gentleness, integrity and wisdom. He found his own direction early in life; he chose a narrow path and never deviated from it; he remained completely uncorrupted by success and by the intrigues of the art-world. He had the qualities of one of those Japanese Zen artists … with the same love of nature and the same tolerance of human beings in all their variety. Humour was an essential part of his outlook on life, and his fantasy, even in his early Dada days, was never violent or deranged. His wisdom was instinctive … His work, both as a poet and a sculptor always faithfully reflects his personality’ (Arp, 1968).

Jean Arp

The French sculptor and painter Jean Arp (1887-1966) was a pioneer of abstract art. His wooden reliefs and sculpture in the round are biomorphic in form and poetically allusive.

Jean Arp was born in Strasbourg. He studied at the Academy in Weimar in 1905-1907 and at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1908. He came to disapprove of formal instruction and moved to Weggis, Switzerland, where he lived and worked in isolation. In 1912, after meeting Wassily Kandinsky in Munich, Arp exhibited with the Blue Rider group, and in 1913 he exhibited in the first Autumn Salon in Berlin. The following year he met Pablo Picasso, Robert Delaunay, under whose influence he began to work in a cubist vein, Amedeo Modigliani, and Max Ernst. In 1915 Arp settled in Zurich, where he met the painter Sophie Taeuber, whom he married in 1921.

Arp was one of the founders of the Dada group in 1916, which held its tumultuous meetings at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. The Dadaists, reacting to the general disillusionment brought on by World War I, held up non-sense as the chief esthetic value to be realized in art and literature. Arp, now a committed Dadaist, abandoned the cubist rigors of the previous 2 years for an art that was whimsical in spirit and biomorphic in form. At this time he constructed painted wooden reliefs, whose curved shapes vaguely call to mind navels, clouds, and lakes. Arp's Dadaist art represented the fanciful and poetic, rather than the nihilistic and morbid, side of the movement, and he gave his works humorous titles. Among his Dadaist collages was a series in which bits of colored paper were pasted on cardboard; these he titled Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance (ca. 1917). But the bits of paper seem to have been placed with a concern for the effectiveness of the design. In 1919 Arp collaborated with Ernst and others to found the Cologne Dada group.

Arp settled in Paris in 1922, where he joined the surrealist movement. He participated in the first surrealist group exhibition held in Paris in 1925 and was officially a surrealist until 1930. In 1931-1932, as a member of the Abstraction-Création group, he made pictures out of bits of twine and torn paper and executed his first sculpture in the round of stone and wood.

His sculpture in the round, like the wooden reliefs, is curving and vaguely suggests the world of nature, such as hills, clouds, or part of a torso, rather than the world of machines. Arp always brought his material, the stone or bronze, to a high degree of finish. He described his sculpture as "concretions." "Concretion," he wrote, "designates solidification, the mass of the stone, the plant, the animal, the man. Concretion is something that has grown." Unlike Constantin Brancusi's sculpture, to which it is superficially similar, Arp's sculpture seems to be expansive rather than distilled or concentrated. Works such as the bronze Shell and Head (1933) and marble Star (1939-1960) seem to turn out to the world rather than turn in upon themselves.

Arp visited the United States in 1949 and 1950. He died in Basel, Switzerland.

Further Reading

Probably the best overall treatment of Arp in English is James Thrall Soby, ed., Jean Arp (1958), with equal attention given to the Dadaist wooden reliefs and the sculpture in the round. It contains essays by the Dadaist Richard Hülsenbeck, Robert Melville, and Carola Giedion-Welcker, as well as an essay by Arp. Two recent book-length treatments of Arp are Sir Herbert E. Read, The Art of Jean Arp (1968), and Edward Trier, Jean Arp, Sculpture: His Last Ten Years (1968). Hans Arp, On My Way: Poetry and Essays, 1912-1947 (1948), is a collection of remarkably sensitive poems. Good background material is in A. H. Barr, Jr., ed., Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism (1936; 3d ed. 1947).

Additional Sources

Andreotti, Margherita., The early sculpture of Jean Arp, Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1989. □

Arp, Jean (or Hans Arp) (b Strasbourg, 16 Sept. 1886; d Basle, 7 June 1966). French sculptor, painter, and poet who was prominently involved with several major avant-garde groups and movements in the first half of the 20th century. At the time of his birth his home city in Alsace was under German rule and he spoke French and German with equal ease (he wrote poetry in both languages). In 1912 he met Robert and Sonia Delaunay in Paris and Kandinsky in Munich, where he participated in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition. In 1915 he moved to Zurich, where he was one of the founders of the Dada movement and met his future wife Sophie Taeuber (they married in 1922), with whom he collaborated in experiments with cut-out paper compositions and collages. During the war years in Zurich he also made his first abstract polychrome relief carvings in wood (Dada Relief, 1916, Kunsthaus, Basle). In 1919–20 he lived in Cologne, where he continued his Dada activities in collaboration with his friend Max Ernst. From 1920 Arp worked mainly in Paris and in 1928 he settled at nearby Meudon. At this time he was involved in the Surrealist movement, his work including experiments with chance arrangements. He joined Cercle et Carré in 1930 and he was a founder member of Abstraction-Création in 1931. Also in 1931 he took up sculpture in the round (previously he had made only reliefs) and began to produce what are now his most familiar and distinctive works—sensuous abstract pieces (usually in bronze or marble) that convey a suggestion of organic forms without reproducing actual plant or animal shapes (Growth, 1938, Guggenheim Mus., New York). In 1941 Arp fled to Grasse on the French Riviera, then in 1942 to Switzerland. After the war he returned to Meudon. In his post-war work he did not seriously add to his earlier achievements, but he won many honours and prestigious public commissions; in 1954, for example, he was awarded the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 1958 he made a relief for the Unesco building in Paris.

Arp, Jean (or Hans) (1886–1966). French sculptor, painter, and poet who was prominently involved with several major avant-garde groups and movements in the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Strasbourg, then under German rule, and spoke French and German with equal ease (he wrote poetry in both languages). In 1912 he met Robert and Sonia Delaunay in Paris and Kandinsky in Munich, where he participated in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition. In 1915 he moved to Zurich, where he was one of the founders of the Dada movement and met his future wife Sophie Taeuber (they married in 1922), with whom he collaborated in experiments with cut-out paper compositions and collages. During the war years in Zurich he also made his first abstract polychrome relief carvings in wood (Dada Relief, 1916, Kunsthaus, Basle). In 1919–20 he lived in Cologne, where he continued his Dada activities in collaboration with his friend Max Ernst. From 1920 Arp worked mainly in Paris and in 1928 he settled at nearby Meudon. At this time he was involved in the Surrealist movement, his work including experiments with chance arrangements. He joined Cercle et Carré; in 1930 and he was a founder member of Abstraction-Création in 1931. Also in 1931 he took up sculpture in the round (previously he had made only reliefs) and began to produce what are now his most familiar and distinctive works—sensuous abstract pieces (usually in bronze or marble) that convey a suggestion of organic forms without reproducing actual plant or animal shapes (Growth, 1938, Guggenheim Mus., New York). In 1941 Arp fled to Grasse on the French Riviera, then in 1942 to Switzerland. After the war he returned to Meudon. In his post-war work he did not seriously add to his earlier achievements, but he won many honours and prestigious public commissions; in 1954, for example, he was awarded the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 1958 he made a relief for the Unesco building in Paris.

Jean Arp 1887-1966, French sculptor and painter. Arp was connected with the Blaue Reiter in Munich, various avant-garde groups in Paris, including the surrealists, and the Dadaists in Zürich. He consistently created novel and abstract forms in various media—bas-reliefs, collages, painted cutouts, sculpture in the round, and painted wood reliefs. Often given a humorous touch, his works contain elements of organic form while retaining their essential abstraction. Arp finished a monumental wood relief for Harvard in 1950.

Bibliography: See his Arp on Arp, ed. by M. Jean (1972); catalog of his sculpture by François Arp (1968); study by H. Read (1968).

Arp, Jean ( Hans) (1887–1966) Alsatian sculptor, painter and poet. During World War I, he founded the Zurich Dada movement with the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and others. He worked briefly with the Blaue Reiter group, and in the 1920s joined the surrealism movement. His sculpture spans the divide between Dada humour and the purity of non-iconic abstract art. Navel Shirt and Head (1926) and Human Concretion (1935) are typical.

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