1886
Born in Strasbourg
1901-1908
Attended art schools in Strasbourg and Weimar as well as the Académie Julian in Paris; decides against an academic training and works autodidactically on his own formal language
1910
Founder of the Swiss artists' association "Der Moderne Bund" together with Walter Helbig and Oscar Lüthy in Lucerne
1913
Works for Herwarth Walden's Berlin Gallery "Der Sturm"; In Cologne he meets Max Ernst at the German Werkbund exhibition
1916
Together with Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara, he founded the Dada movement in Zurich
1918
Meeting with Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann and Kurt Schwitters
1922
Marriage with Sophie Taeuber
1925
Exhibits with de Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Man Ray, Masson, Miró and Picasso at the first exhibition of the surrealists in the Gallery Pierre, Paris
1926
Recognition of French citizenship
1927
First solo exhibition at the Galerie Surréaliste Paris
1940
Escape with Sophie Taeuber-Arp from the German occupation to Grasse in southern France
1943
His wife Sophie Taeuber-Arp dies
1949
First solo exhibition in America
1954
Receives the "Grand Prize for Plastic" at the Venice Biennale
1958
The Museum of Modern Art in New York shows the first retrospective of his work
1959
Marriage with Marguerite Hagenbach
1965
Awarded with the Federal Cross of Merit
1966
dies of a heart attack in Basel