Jean Arp

Jean Arp is a French painter, poet and sculptor internationally renowned born in Strasbourg in 1886. After studying at the Decorative Art School of Strasbourg, Paris and Weimar, he decides to focus on poetry. In 1909, he meets Paul Klee, and participates in 1912 at the Cavalier Bleu exhibition, a group of artists of expressionism influence created in Zurich. Jean Arp joins the Dada movement in 1916 and illustrates "Vingt Cinq Poèmes" of Tristan Tzara. It is in 1917 that he starts sculpting. From 1926 to 1930, he becomes a founder member of the Abstraction-Creation group, a collective of artists formed in Paris to counter the influence of the Surrealism group directed by André Breton.

Jean has been the object of numerous personal exhibitions notably at the Modern Art Museum of New-York in 1958, at the National Modern Art Museum of Paris in 1962. In 1954, he received the Grand International Prize of sculpture at the Biennale of Venice, and the Grand National Prize of Arts in 1963.

After his death, thanks to his second spouse, his house-workshop in Clamart became the Arp Foundation, opened to public since 1979. It gathers an exceptional collection of artworks given by his wife, and enriched by many donations through the years.