Arp, Jean

Arp, Jean or Hans, 1887–1966, French sculptor and painter. Arp was connected with the Blaue Reiter in Munich, various avant-garde groups in Paris, including the surrealists, and the Dadaists in Zürich. He consistently created novel and abstract forms in various media—bas-reliefs, collages, painted cutouts, sculpture in the round, and painted wood reliefs. Often given a humorous touch, his works contain elements of organic form while retaining their essential abstraction. With his wife, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, he created abstract multimedia works they called Duo-Collages. Arp finished a monumental wood relief for Harvard in 1950.

See his Arp on Arp, ed. by M. Jean (1972); catalog of his sculpture by François Arp (1968); study by H. Read (1968).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies