About
Jean Arp, born Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp in Strasbourg in 1886, is a major figure in 20th-century art. A co-founder of the Dada movement in Zurich in 1916, he later developed biomorphic abstraction, influential in modern sculpture. Married to artist Sophie Taeuber, he collaborated with her on numerous projects. After breaking with Surrealism, he co-founded the Abstraction-Création group in 1931. His work, which includes sculptures, reliefs, collages, and poems, explores organic forms and chance. He received the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1954 and was honored with retrospectives at MoMA and the Musée National d'Art Moderne. He died in Basel in 1966.
* 1886-09-16 — † 1966-06-07
Major works
- Configuration (1930)sculpture
- Human Concretion (1935)sculpture
- Ptolemy (1953)sculpture
- Le Berger des nuages (1953)sculpture
- Soleil récursif (1966)sculpture
Key milestones
- 1916Co-founds the Dada movement at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
- 1931Co-founds the Abstraction-Création group in Paris.
- 1954Receives the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale.
Themes
Biomorphic abstractionOrganic formsChancePoetryArtistic collaboration
Sources: moma.org · fondationarp.org