Hans Arp  (French, 1886-1966) 

Hans Arp (French/German, 1886–1966)—also Jean Arp—was a sculptor, painter, and poet. Born in Strasbourg, he studied in his youth at the École des Arts et Métiers. From 1905 until 1907, Arp studied at the Kunstschule in Weimar. He lived in many different European cities throughout the 1910s, including Munich, Paris, and Zurich. Arp befriended many fellow artists, including Robert and Sonia Delaunay (French, 1885–1941; Ukrainian, 1885–1979), Wasily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944), Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884–1920), and Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). In 1915, Arp moved to Zurich and began creating tapestries and collages, frequently collaborating with Sophie Taeuber (Swiss, 1889–1943), who would eventually become his wife. He is considered one of the founding members of the Dada movement, with which he continued to participate even after he moved to Cologne in 1919. Arp contributed to a variety of artistic publications, including De Stijl and La Révolution Surréaliste. His artwork appeared in the first Surrealist group exhibition at the Galerie Pierre in Paris in 1925. Additionally, Arp continued to publish poetry and essays throughout his life. In 1954, he was awarded the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale. Retrospectives of Arp's work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.