Jean Arp

Sculptor, collage creator, engraver, poet, Jean Arp is a prolific artist! Born on 16 September 1886 Strasbourg to a German father and an Alsatian mother, his double cultural and linguistic affiliation is illustrated by his double first name Jean / Hans. He lived close to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame until the age of 24. In 1910, he founded the Der Moderne Bund » movement, a group of modern and avant-garde artists. When the First World War broke out, he went to Paris to avoid German mobilisation, before fleeing to Zurich in 1915. Jean Arp contributed to the development of the Dada movement and was inspired by the laws of chance. He moved to Paris in 1925 and invented the Arpadian encyclopaedia, a veritable artistic language. In the 1930s, he began sculpting in the round. His sculptural work was recognised in 1954 at the Venice Biennale. He died in 1966 at the age of 79 in Bâle, a town on the border of Alsace.

When you visit à Strasbourg, be sure to check out the Aubette, a former complex located on Place Kléber, whose horns were realised in collaboration with its épouse Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Theo Van Doesburg. Strasbourg's Musée d'Art Moderne Contemporain conserves around fifty of the artist's œuvres.

Jean Arp. Photograph from the Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jeager