Sculpture classique (Classical Sculpture)

Jean (Hans) Arp

1964

marble

Buffalo AKG Art Museum

In 1908, Jean (Hans) Arp moved to Paris to study art, but he quickly came to disapprove of formal academia. Therefore, in 1909, he moved to the small town of Weggis, Switzerland, where he worked for several years in isolation. Two years later Arp visited the artist Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944) in Munich. There he encountered the artists of the avant-garde group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Soon after, Arp began contributing to the group’s publications and exhibitions. It was around this same time that he began experimenting with free-form imagery, which became a vital compositional component of his work. During the 1