About the artist
Known as one of the most notable abstract sculptors, Jean or Hans Arp, a multifaceted French artist, was born in Strasbourg in 1886. Leaving his hometown's École des Arts et Métiers in 1904, he ventured to Paris to showcase his poetry. His art education, spanning from 1905 to 1907, took him to Kunstschule, Weimar, Germany, and eventually back to Paris' Académie Julian. Arp began experimenting with collages and cut-paper reliefs alongside his soon-to-be spouse, Sophie Taeuber, in 1915. This creativity culminated in him being a founding member of the original Dada group in Zurich, 1916. By 1920, he had co-established the Cologne Dada group with Max Ernst and Alfred Grünwald. After his brief association with surrealists, Arp left them in 1931 to help found Abstraction-Création, giving the public interactive, rearrangeable small works. Escaping German occupation in 1942, he sought refuge in Switzerland, where he remained until his death in 1966.
