Jean Arp | |
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 Photograph of Jean Arp, published inDe Stijl, vol. 7, nr. 73/74 (January 1926) | |
| Born | Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (1886-09-16)16 September 1886 |
| Died | 7 June 1966(1966-06-07) (aged 79) Basel, Switzerland |
| Education | Académie Julian |
| Known for | Sculpture, painting |
| Movement | Abstraction-Création,Surrealism,Dada |
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Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (/ɑːrp/;German:[aʁp]; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known asJean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as aDadaist and anabstract artist.
Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp to a French mother and a German father inStrasbourg during the period between theFranco-Prussian War andWorld War I, when the city and surrounding region were under the control of theGerman Empire. Following the return ofAlsace to France at the end of World War I, French law required Arp to adopt a French name, and he legally became Jean Arp, although he continued referring to himself as "Hans" when he spoke German.[1]
In 1904, after leaving theÉcole des Arts et Métiers in Strasbourg, he went to Paris where he published his poetry for the first time. From 1905 to 1907, he studied at theWeimarer Kunstschule in Germany, where he met his uncle, German landscape painterCarl Arp. In 1908 he returned to Paris, where he attended theAcadémie Julian. Arp was a founder-member of the first modern art alliance in Switzerland Moderne Bund in Lucerne in 1911,[2] participating in their exhibitions from 1911 to 1913.[3]
In 1912 he went to Munich and called onWassily Kandinsky, the influential Russian painter and art theorist. Arp was encouraged by him in his researches and exhibited with theDer Blaue Reiter group.[4] Later that year, he took part in a major exhibition in Zürich, along withHenri Matisse,Robert Delaunay, and Kandinsky.[4] In Berlin in 1913, he was taken up byHerwarth Walden, the dealer and magazine editor who was at that time one of the most powerful figures in the European avant-garde.[4]
In 1915 he moved to Switzerland to take advantage of Swiss neutrality. Arp later told the story of how, when he was notified to report to the German consulate in Zürich,[5] he pretended to be mentally ill in order to avoid being drafted into the German Army: aftercrossing himself whenever he saw a portrait ofPaul von Hindenburg,[4] Arp was given paperwork on which he was told to write his date of birth on the first blank line. Accordingly, he wrote "16/9/87"; he then wrote "16/9/87" on every other line as well,[5] then drew one final line beneath them and, "without worrying too much about accuracy", calculated their sum.[6]Hans Richter, describing this story, noted that "they [the German authorities] believed him."[5]
It was at an exhibition that year where he first met the artistSophie Taeuber who was to become his collaborator in the production of works of art and a significant influence on his artistic style and working method.[7] They married on 20 October 1922.[8]
In 1916Hugo Ball opened theCabaret Voltaire, which was to become the centre of Dada activities in Zürich for a group that included Arp,Marcel Janco,Tristan Tzara, and others.[9] In 1920, as Hans Arp, along withMax Ernst and the social activistAlfred Grünwald, he set up the CologneDada group. In 1925 his work also appeared in the first exhibition of theSurrealist group at the Galérie Pierre in Paris.[1]
In 1926 Arp moved to the Paris suburb ofMeudon. In 1931 he broke with the Surrealist movement to foundAbstraction-Création, working with the Paris-based group Abstraction-Création and the periodical,Transition. Beginning in the 1930s the artist expanded his efforts from collage, assemblage (Trousse d'un Da, 1921[10]) and bas-relief to include bronze and stone sculptures.[11] He produced several small works made of multiple elements that the viewer could pick up, separate, and rearrange into new configurations.[12]
Throughout the 1930s and until the end of his life, he wrote and published essays and poetry. In 1942 he fled from his home inMeudon to escape German occupation and lived inZürich until the war ended.
Arp visited New York City in 1949 for a solo exhibition at the Buchholz Gallery, and this coincided with a general international recognition of his work. In 1950 he was invited to execute a relief for theHarvard University Graduate Center inCambridge, Massachusetts, and would also be commissioned to do a mural at theUNESCO building in Paris. Arthur and Madeleine Lewja, ofGalerie Chalette, who had known Arp in Europe, became his gallery representatives in New York in the late 1950s, and were instrumental in establishing his reputation on the American side of the Atlantic.[13]
In 1958, a retrospective of Arp's work was held at theMuseum of Modern Art in New York City, followed by an exhibition at theMusée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1962. In 1972, the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcased Jean Arp's work from the Lejwa's collection and a few works lent by Arp's widow, Marguerite Arp. The exhibition was expanded and traveled as "Arp 1877–1966," first exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and then shown in seven museums in the United States and six in Australia.[14] Organized by theMinneapolis Institute of Arts and the Wurttembergischer Kunstverein of Stuttgart, a 150-piece exhibition titled "The Universe of Jean Arp" concluded an international six-city tour at theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1986.[15]
Arp's career was distinguished with many awards including the Grand Prize for sculpture at the 1954Venice Biennale, a sculpture prizes at the 1964 Pittsburgh International, the 1963 Grand Prix National des Arts, the 1964Carnegie Prize, the 1965Goethe Prize from theUniversity of Hamburg, and then the Order of Merit with a Star of the German Republic.[19]
Arp and his first wife, the Swiss artistSophie Taeuber-Arp, became French nationals in 1926.[3] In the 1930s they bought a piece of land inClamart and built a house at the edge of a forest. Influenced by theBauhaus,Le Corbusier andCharlotte Perriand, Taeuber designed it.[20] She died in 1943 inZürich, where they had moved to escape the German occupation of France, from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. After living in Zürich, Arp was to make Meudon his primary residence again in 1946.[21]
In 1959 Arp married the collector Marguerite Hagenbach (1902–1994), his long-time companion.[22] He died in 1966, inBasel, Switzerland.
There are three Arp foundations in Europe: The Fondation Arp in Clamart preserves the atelier where Arp lived and worked for most of his life; about 2,000 visitors tour the house each year. The Fondazione Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach inLocarno, Switzerland, was founded by Arp's second wife, Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach.[20] A foundation dedicated to Arp, named Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., was established in 1977 by the dealer Johannes Wasmuth in consultation with Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach and owns the largest collection of works by Arp and holds the copyright of all his works. It has research centre and office in Berlin, and an office inRolandseck, Germany.[23]
TheMusée d'art moderne et contemporain of Strasbourg houses many of his paintings and sculptures.
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