Beschreibung:

Artist: Hans Arp (1886-1966) German/French Title: Coulisses de Foret (Wings of the Forest) 1955 Signature: signed lower right Medium: lithograph in colours (from an edition of 300) Size: 36¼ x 31cm (14.3 x 12.2in) Framed Size: 43.25 x 37.5cm (17 x 14.8in) Provenance: Collection of the late Lee Snodgrass, Colorado; Thence by Descent Literature: Arntz 330 a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} Born in Strasbourg in 1886, Hans Arp or Jean Arp as he is also known, was a Franco-German sculptor, painter, poet and print-maker who, after studying art in Weimar, went on to Paris, where he studied at the Academie Julian. A committed Modernist, Ar... Read more Born in Strasbourg in 1886, Hans Arp or Jean Arp as he is also known, was a Franco-German sculptor, painter, poet and print-maker who, after studying art in Weimar, went on to Paris, where he studied at the Academie Julian. A committed Modernist, Arp sought refuge in Switzerland during World War I, and in 1916 became a founding member of the Dada movement. Four years later, along with Max Ernst and Alfred Grünwald, he set up the Cologne Dada group, and in 1922 married a fellow-artist, Sophie Taeuber. Arp was also associated with the Surrealists in Paris, participating in their first exhibition at the Galérie Pierre in 1925. The following year, he and Taeuber settled in the Paris suburb of Meudon. In 1931, he parted company with the Surrealists, to found Abstraction-Création. During the 1930's, Arp produced sculptures in bronze and stone as well as collage works and bas-reliefs. In 1942 he fled from Meudon to Zurich, to escape the German occupation, and spent the rest of World War II in Switzerland. In 1949, he had an exhibition at the Buchholz Gallery in New York and the following year was commissioned to make a relief sculpture for the Harvard University Graduate Center in Cambridge MA. Arp was also commissioned to make a mural at the UNESCO building in Paris. A retrospective of his work was held at MoMA in New York in 1958, and another at the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne in Paris, in 1962. During the 1950's and 60's, Arp worked on editions of lithographs and woodcuts, in which he explored the possibilities of what at first glance appear to be the simplest of abstract motifs. However, his playful imagination enabled him to create infinite variations, using just two or three solid areas of colour. These were produced as limited editions, in etchings, serigraphs, woodcuts and lithographs. The colour lithograph Coulisses de Foret was produced in 1955, in an edition of 300, for the Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover (Kestner Society, Hannover). [Catalogue raisonne, Wvz. Arntz, Nr. 330c] This print is also in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Peter Murray, October 2018