Jean (Hans) Arp

French (1886 - 1966)
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Jean (Hans) Arp Untitled About 1936 © Estate of Hans Arp. All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2019

Biography

Born 1886
Died 1966
Nationality French
Birth place Strasburg
Death place Basel

Jean, or Hans, Arp was born in Strasbourg. He moved to Switzerland in 1915 where he co-founded the Zurich dada group. During this period and in the 1920s he made wooden reliefs, collages and drawings. He was interested in the effects of chance and also in nature and organic forms. Arp met his future wife Sophie Taeuber in 1922, and they produced many collaborative works. Arp joined the surrealist group in 1925 after the dada movement disbanded. He began making free-standing sculpture in the early 1930s, after previously making only sculptural reliefs.

Artworks

S'élevant [Rising up] 1962
Bird Waking Under a Tree 1965
Untitled About 1936
Constellation de cinq formes [Constellation with Five Forms] 1956

Glossary terms

Dada

  • A radical artistic and literary movement that was a reaction against the cultural climate that supported the First World War. The Dadaists took an anti-establishment attitude, questioning art's status and favouring performance and collage over traditional art techniques. Many Dadaists went on to become involved with Surrealism.