Jean Arp

Happy Birthday Jean Arp!! The French sculptor was born Hans Arp,  in 1887, nearly 100 years after Antoine Barye, who we researched yesterday. Although he was born in Strasbourg (Alsace), German territory returned by the French at the end of World War One, he lived much of his life in Switzerland. Following the war and the return of Alsace to France, he was forced to change his name to Jean by French authorities. Arp worked in the Dada persuasion, was a founder of the Zurich branch, in fact, but also exhibited in Surrealist exhibits. He created contemporary, organic sculpture. He was preoccupied with the role of accident in art. The small 7-8 inch polished brass sculpture represented below, Head and Shell, is not to be taken too literally, rather in Arp’s words:  “Each of these bodies has a definite significance, but it is only when I feel there is nothing more to change that I decide what each means, and it is only then that I give it a name.”