Arp, Jean - Arp, Jean 1887–1966
Arp, Jean 1887–1966
Also known as Hans Arp, this Alsatian-born poet, painter, sculptor, and collagist, was a founder of the dada movement and an important participant in that and the surrealist movement. He wrote poetry in both French and German. (See also obituary, Contemporary Authors, Vols. 25-28.)
Over the years, first in his reliefs and then in his whimsical writings, [Arp] developed what he called "concrete art" (as opposed to abstract art)—material and verbal shapes allowed to grow not after nature but like nature. They arise from spontaneous processes of dream, chance, play, and humor. (pp. 27-8)
Arp had an astonishingly sustained fifty-year career of work. He participated in almost every art movement in Europe without belonging to any. He reached fame slowly without scheming or scandal and avoided personal and political squabbles…. The pervasive wholeness of his work tends to obscure the slow evolution it...
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