Arp, Jean

known as Hans Arp

(born Sept. 16, 1887, Strassburg, Ger.—died June 7, 1966, Basel, Switz.) French painter, sculptor, and poet. After studying in Weimar, Ger., and at the Académie Julian in Paris, he became involved in the most important movements of early 20th-century art: Der Blaue Reiter in Munich (1912), Cubism in Paris (1914), Dada in Zurich during World War I, Surrealism (1925), and Abstraction-Création (1931). During these years he produced polychrome relief carvings in wood, cut-paper compositions, and, in the 1930s, his most distinctive sculptural works: abstract forms that suggest animals and plants. He also wrote poetry.

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