Hans Arp

The German-French sculptor, painter and poet Hans (Jean) Arp was born in Strasbourg in 1886. After a brief study of painting in Weimar and Paris, he decided to forego academic training. Arp was a co-founder of the artists’ association Der Moderne Bund (The Modern League). By way of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee he came into close contact with the Blauer Reiter group in Munich. In 1913 Arp worked for Herwarth Walden’s gallery Der Sturm in Berlin. In 1914 he befriended Max Ernst. At the outbreak of war Arp moved to Paris, where he came to know Amadeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, among others. In 1915 he met his future wife, Sophie Taeuber, in a Zurich gallery; they developed a close artistic collaboration. From 1916 to 1918 Arp was actively involved in the Dada movement in Zurich. He later turned to Surrealism and Constructivism, and then finally, in 1930/1931, to sculpture. In 1926 he resettled in Meudon and in 1942 he and his wife went into exile in Zurich, where Sophie Taeuber-Arp died in an accident the following year. After the war’s end Arp returned to France and married a second time. He died in Basel in 1966.