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Biographical Note by Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia
Jean Arp was born at Strassburg
on September 16, 1887.
In 1904 he came to Paris, where
he was troubled and moved by his
first contacts with modern painting.
In 1909 he went to Switzerland,
settled at Weggis and worked for
several years in great solitude. He
was obsessed by a need for perfection
and the absolute, which impelled
him to seek an art divested of all in
dividual dynamism.
Arp was at Zurich in 1915. This
was the period of “papiers collés”
and accidental “objects,” rudimen
tary, irrational, useless, broken,
found at random, which mark the
first symptoms of the Dada spirit.
Dada was active in Zurich from 1915
to 1921, and he was one of its pro
moters. In 1917 Arp started work
on his “Reliefs,” which, plastically
speaking, are situated between the
“Object” and the sculpture proper
of his late works. At the same time
he published several books of poems
which for him are equal in impor
tance to his plastic works. He often
likes to pick up poems of his youth
and introduce new passages which
amplify the original text and change
its meaning.
Arp settled in Meudon in 1926. At
this period he met the surrealists,
took part in their exhibitions and
contributed to their magazines.
1930 to 1948. Arp’s creative sen
sibility impelled him to seek a di
rect, concrete art without imitative
or symbolic trickery, and inspired
purely sculptural works which iden
tify themselves with natural forms,
without description or imitation.
He has always been attracted by the
idea of collective work; he has oc
casionally realized collective projects
with certain friends, and particu
larly with Sophie Taeuber.