History of Art: Jean Arp

Art of the 20th Century

Art Styles in 20th century Art Map

Jean Arp

Jean Arp

(b Strassburg, Germany [now Strasbourg, France], 16 Sept 1886; d Basle, Switzerland, 7 June 1966).

French sculptor, painter, collagist, printmaker and poet of German birth. The son of a German father and French Alsatian mother, he developed a cosmopolitan outlook from an early age and as a mature artist maintained close contact with the avant-garde throughout Europe. He was a pioneer of abstract art and one of the founders of Dada in Zurich, but he also participated actively in both Surrealism and Constructivism. While he prefigured junk art and the Fluxus movement in his incorporation of waste material, it was through his investigation of biomorphism and of chance and accident that he proved especially influential on later 20th-century art in liberating unconscious creative forces.

Shirtfront and fork
1922

Overturned Blue Shoe with Two Heels Under a Black Vault
1925

Constellation with Five White Forms and Two Black, Variation III
1932

Constellation According to the Laws of Chance

Kompozycja

Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance
1916

Head with Mustache and Bottles

Automatic Drawing
1918

Enak's Tears (Terrestrial Forms)
1917

Birds in an Aquarium
1920

Portfolio Cover from 7 Arpaden 1923

Mustache Hat, from 7 Arpaden 1923	One Navel, plate 3, from 7 Arpaden 1923

The Navel Bottle, from 7 Arpaden 1923	Mustache Watch, plate 5, from 7 Arpaden 1923

Egg Beater, plate 6, from 7 Arpaden 1923	Arabic Eight, plate 7, from 7 Arpaden 1923