Jean Arp

JEAN ARP

SHAPES GROWING IN THE BODY

Employing the habits and dynamics of nature, Jean Arp created art that may be abstract but first and foremost are concrete, physical entities.

Knight Torso (Torse-chevalier), 1959

Description
The bronze sculpture has a vertical structure with prominent soft and organic shape; the surface is smooth and shiny. Though the sculpture has no definite figurative subject, its abstract shape calls forth a wealth of associations.

About the work
Jean Arp's sculpture, Knight Torso (Torse-chevalier), is distinguished by soft, organic shapes, resembling a flower bud about to bloom. A powerful, heroic shape, it rises from its pedestal, growing through the air. The surface is smooth and shaped like a membrane containing life. Round, asymmetrical shapes undulate along it. It is like an amoeba: A simple, almost liquid organism, yet refined and nuanced in its shape.
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Arp's art in general
Today Arp's fame rests primarily on his organic, abstract idiom, and throughout his life he was fascinated with nature's habits and changes. His art is often characterised by a sense of change, of growth, of life moving from one stage to another. Thus the metamorphosis becomes a distinguishing trait in his art. 
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Literature
"Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories", Viking Press, New York, 1972
"Arp, 1886–1966" (Jane Hancock and Stefanie Poley), Hatje, Stuttgart/Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1987