(1887-1966) poet
Hans Arp was born in Strasbourg, Alsace. Now part of France, Alsace belonged to Germany at the time of Arp’s birth. His father, Pierre-Guillaume Arp, operated a cigar and cigarette factory. Arp’s mother, was French, and the family sympathized politically with France. Arp grew up speaking German, French, and the Alsatian dialect. His childhood daydreams translated into an early literary creativity. Arp published his first poem, written in Alsatian, at age 15. Two years later, he published three more poems.
Although a gifted poet, Arp would achieve his greatest fame as a painter and sculptor. He studied art in Strasbourg, Weimar, and Paris. After moving to Switzerland, Arp produced abstract painting and in 1916 helped found the dada movement in art. In 1921, he married the artist Sophie Taeuber. Five years later, he changed his name from Hans to Jean.
Arp published his first collection of poetry, written in German, in 1920. His poems gained a wider audience in 1948 when a New York firm published his collection On My Way: Poetry and Essays, 1912-1947. Arp’s early verse was conventional but amusing and inventive. In the 1940s and 1950s, his poems were written as a series of dreamlike word associations and had more emotional depth. The historian Hermann Boeschenstein explains that Arp was a pioneer in “freeing the word from the task of relating to and disclosing the meaning of outer and inner realities. Language as such is advanced to the central position in poetry and forms its theme.”
Other Works by Hans Arp
The Isms of Art. 1925. Authorized Reprint Edition. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Jean, Marcel, ed. Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories. Translated by Joachim Neugroschel. New York: Viking Press, 1972.
A Work about Hans Arp
Last, Rex W. German Dadaist Literature: Kurt Schwitters, Hugo Ball, Hans Arp. Boston: Twayne, 1973.
