Hans Arp

Today, Hans Arp is regarded as one of the main representatives of organic abstraction: his formal language oriented towards the change and growth of nature. After short study visits to art schools in Strasbourg, Weimar and Paris, Arp decided to pursue a career as an autodidact. In 1912, at the invitation of Wassily Kandinsky, he took part in the publication of the so-called "Almanach", the manifesto of the artist group "Der Blaue Reiter". Four years later, together with Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara, he founded the Dada movement, which began in Zurich’s legendary "Cabaret Voltaire". In 1925 he exhibited with de Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Man Ray, Miró and Picasso at the first Surrealist exhibition at the Pierre Gallery in Paris. Both Surrealism and Constructivism remained influential throughout his work as a sculptor.