Jean Arp / Hans Arp (1886 – 1966) was a German-French, or
Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as
torn and pasted paper.
When Arp spoke in German he referred to himself as
"Hans", and when he spoke in French he referred to himself as
"Jean". Many people believe that he was born Hans and later changed
his name to Jean, but this is not the case.
Arp was a founding member of the Dada movement in Zürich in
1916. In 1920, as Hans Arp, along with Max Ernst, and the social activist
Alfred Grünwald, he set up the Cologne Dada group. However, in 1925 his work
also appeared in the first exhibition of the surrealist group at the Galérie Pierre
in Paris.
In 1926, Arp moved to the Paris suburb of Meudon. In 1931,
he broke with the Surrealist movement to found Abstraction-Création, working
with the Paris-based group Abstraction-Création and the periodical, Transition.
Beginning in the 1930s, the artist expanded his efforts from collage and
bas-relief to include bronze and stone sculptures. He produced several small
works made of multiple elements that the viewer could pick up, separate, and
rearrange into new configurations.
Throughout the 1930s and until the end of his life, he wrote
and published essays and poetry. In 1942, he fled from his home in Meudon to
escape German occupation and lived in Zürich until the war ended.
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