1888-1966 French born, Sculptor, graphic artist, painter and writer. He worked in German Expressionism, Dada Movement and Surrealism.
AKA "Hans" Arp. In 1912 he worked with Wassily Kandinsky and showed with the German Expressionism artists. Since he began in the camp of Abstract art, he took that as a launching point for his later work in the Dada Movement.
In 1913 He was a founding member of the Zurich Dada. It was during this period that he first developed his technique of cutout paper collages which are arranged based on random chance. He called this form "Papiers déchirés". It worked like this, he would cut out a selection of pieces of cardboard at random. Then he colored the pieces and laid them out on a cardboard backing. Then he shook the cardboard and finally pasted them down where they ended up. He referred to this as "Concrete Art", today referred sometimes as Generative Art.
In 1920 he participated in the Berlin Dada exhibition.
In 1925, he participated in the first Surrealism exhibition in Paris.
In 1958 he created a mural relief for the UNESCO Building in Paris.
Artists associated with Arp include:
His work appears in the permanent collections of:
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Kroller-Muller Museum, Amsterdam
- Musée des Beaux Arts, Strasbourg,
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
- Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal
- International Museum of Collage, online
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Kimbell Art Museum, Dallas, TX
Sources:
Motherwell, Robert "The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology", Harvard University Press, 1951
Rubin, William S., "Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage", Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1968.
Last Updated 04.10.04