Jean Arp

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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