Doll's Rocker

Arp’s poetry and his emphasis on the abstract nature of art — lines, surfaces, forms and colours — are a reflection of his era. A founding member of the Dada movement, whose practice emphasizes spontaneity and chance, Arp wrote: “Revolted by the butchery of the [First] World War, we devoted ourselves to the arts... We were seeking an art based on fundamentals, to cure the madness of the age, and a new order of things that would restore the balance between heaven and hell.” It was only in 1930 that he turned to free standing sculpture. The Dada spirit continued to inform Arp’s entire artistic production, and he defended “concrete” art (Arp preferred this term to “abstract” art), which he associated with a social purpose: "Concrete art is an elementary, natural, healthy art that plants the stars of peace, love and poetry in the spirit and in the heart.” Many of Arp’s sculptures, with their biomorphic and undulating forms, seem to defy gravity and often suggest movement.

© Estate of Hans (Jean) Arp / SOCAN (2021)