Hans Arp

Best known for his two- and three-dimensional work deploying biomorphic forms, German French artist Jean (Hans) Arp (1886–1966) produced an extraordinary and influential body of work. This publication focuses on Arp's works on paper and paper collages, providing a comprehensive picture of their role in the artist's practice as a vehicle for play and the invention of new worlds. Across five chapters, some 200 illustrations offer a representative selection of works that have mostly never been reproduced or exhibited publicly before. An intriguing new perspective on the artist's unique vocabulary of shapes and gestures emerges through the book's thematic groupings, while illuminating texts by Arie Hartog and Loretta Würtenberger unpack the formal language and artistic resonances of these works, both drawing out their connections to Arp's iconic sculptural practice and considering his prolific work with and on paper as a fascinating world in itself.