artist: Jean Arp (German/French 1886-1966)
medium: original woodcut print
dimensions: 16 1/2 x 22 cm image size (approx) / 41 1/2 x 51 1/2 cm frame size (approx)
limited edition 58/97
hand signed in pencil
presented new hand finished timber frame with non-reflective UV museum glass and double thick archival mat and backing
AU $2850 (approx US $1850 / 1595 EUROS / 272,000 yen / 1385 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Jean Arp, also known as Hans Arp, was born on 16 September, 1886. He was a pioneering German-French artist celebrated for his influential contributions to Dada, Surrealism, and abstract art. Born in Strasbourg during a time of shifting national borders, Arp navigated dual cultural identities throughout his life. Trained in Strasbourg, Weimar, and Paris, he worked across mediums including sculpture, painting, collage, and poetry.
In 1916, Arp became a founding member of the Dada movement in Zürich, creating abstract and often biomorphic works that challenged traditional aesthetics. He later collaborated with his wife, Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and participated in key modernist movements such as Surrealism and Abstraction-Création. His playful yet formally rigorous practice spanned from spontaneous paper collages to monumental bronze sculptures.
Arp’s career included major exhibitions at MoMA, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, and the Venice Biennale, where he received the Grand Prize for Sculpture in 1954. His work remains foundational to 20th-century abstraction, celebrated for its organic forms, poetic sensibility, and philosophical depth.
He died in Basel in 1966. His legacy is preserved through several foundations and institutions, including the Fondation Arp in Clamart and the Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp in Germany.