Stiftung Arp e. V. Papers The Art of Hans Arp after 1945 Volume 2 Edited by Jana Teuscher and Loretta Würtenberger Stiftung Arp e. V. Papers Volume 2 The Art of Arp after 1945 Edited by Jana Teuscher and Loretta Würtenberger Table of Contents 10 Director’s Foreword Engelbert Büning 12 Foreword Jana Teuscher and Loretta Würtenberger 16 The Art of Hans Arp after 1945 An Introduction Maike Steinkamp 25 At the Threshold of a New Sculpture On the Development of Arp’s Sculptural Principles in the Threshold Sculptures Jan Giebel 41 On Forest Wheels and Forest Giants A Series of Sculptures by Hans Arp 1961 – 1964 Simona Martinoli 60 People are like Flies Hans Arp, Camille Bryen, and Abhumanism Isabelle Ewig 80 “Cher Maître” Lygia Clark and Hans Arp’s Concept of Concrete Art Heloisa Espada 88 Organic Form, Hapticity and Space as a Primary Being The Polish Neo-Avant-Garde and Hans Arp Marta Smolińska 108 Arp’s Mysticism Rudolf Suter 125 Arp’s “Moods” from Dada to Experimental Poetry The Late Poetry in Dialogue with the New Avant-Gardes Agathe Mareuge 139 Families of Mind — Families of Forms Hans Arp, Alvar Aalto, and a Case of Artistic Influence Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen 157 Movement — Space Arp & Architecture Dick van Gameren 174 Contributors 178 Photo Credits 9 Director’s Foreword Engelbert Büning Hans Arp’s late work after 1945 can only be understood in the context of the horrific three decades that preceded it. The First World War, the catastro- phe of the century, and the Second World War that followed shortly thereaf- ter, were finally over. Thirty years of fearing for his life and living in dread of persecution were finally over. It is therefore no surprise that the artist’s speechlessness at the beginning of World War I was manifest in Dada poetry, which at the time was a new form of expression, having developed in response to Europe’s dreadful launch into modernity. In Germany, there was only a short respite, which was char- acterized by hope for a new democratic future. What followed was the hor- rifying recognition that what were thought to have been the ghosts of the past were returning with still more disastrous consequences for the continent. As everyone knows, World War II wrought yet greater destruction. After Arp’s beloved wife and colleague Sophie accidentally died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 1943, Arp became so paralyzed that it is astonishing he could continue his work at all after 1945. Since our primary responsibility is to promote Arp’s artistic legacy and that of his first wife, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, we dedicated the Stiftung Arp’s biannual conference in 2017 to this late body of work, which has found little resonance within the scholarly community. We are pleased to present the findings in this volume. Our hope is not only to share new research, but also to provide further stimulus for our fellowship program. Established in 2014, it supports research by both emerging as well as established scholars on the work of Hans and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the wider context surrounding it. 10 On behalf of the Stiftung Arp e.V., I extend special thanks to the conference par- ticipants, who now present their conclusions and insights to a wider public in our series, the Stiftung Arp e.V. Papers. Our heartfelt thanks go to our confer- ence host, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, and especially to its Director Lisette Pelsers, who placed its stunning rooms at our disposal, and to her team members Renske Cohen Tervaert, Jannet de Goede, Wanda Vermeulen, and Lies Boelrijk. We also thank the Cultural Affairs Depart- ment at the German Embassy in The Hague for its generous support, which extended beyond financial backing. Last but not least, we are grateful to Loretta Würtenberger and our former Curator Maike Steinkamp for organ- izing the conference. 11 Foreword Jana Teuscher and Loretta Würtenberger The central aim of the Stiftung Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V.’s bi- annual conference is to bring together researchers and interested parties from around the world to reflect on Hans Arp’s work together, and to discuss specific facets thereof which have received all too little attention, despite their importance. In 2017, the conference was dedicated to the theme of “The Art of Arp after 1945” and focused on aspects of Hans Arp’s late works. Created during the period between 1945 and the artist’s death in 1966, the late work is breathtaking in its resilience. It responds to the artistic cur- rents of its time, while simultaneously continuing to pursue and fully realize themes of the pre-war years. And it does all of this in a manner true to Arp’s beloved process of nature, which repeats annually, yet is perpetually and masterfully renewed. Arp reaped the rewards of outward success during these years. However, he did not stagnate, but rather — with Marguerite Hagenbach-Arp at his side from 1953 — he increasingly took the latitude to develop his oeuvre further. It culminated in the Threshold Sculptures, sur- prisingly contemporary works in which the artist, who was then over sixty, developed an entirely new formal language. It was also a period marked by extensive travel, both in the literal sense to Greece, Mexico, and the United States, and in the figurative sense to the mysticism of the Middle Ages and to Asian philosophy. Unrolling the intellectual map of these developments and tracing the ways Arp crisscrossed its territories was the great joy of the two-day conference in Otterlo, The Netherlands, which the Stiftung Arp e.V. organized in grateful cooperation with the Kröller-Müller Museum. Parallel to the conference, the Kröller-Müller Museum held an exhibition devoted to Arp entitled The Poetry of Form, which was accompanied by a catalogue of the same name. 12 With its distinguished collection situated in one of Europe’s most significant sculpture parks, the Kröller-Müller Museum provided a rich framework for the conference. We extend our special thanks to the Museum’s Director, Lisette Pelsers, and her team for their ongoing support and assistance with logistics and organization. The authors address a wide spectrum of topics. For example, Jan Giebel and Simona Martinoli focus on the late works in their contributions to the present volume. On the one hand, Jan Giebel is concerned with the so-called Threshold Sculptures, which Hans Arp began after 1958. On the other, Si- mona Martinoli turns her attention to the Forest Wheels that Arp created a few years later for his garden in Tessin. Rudolf Suter turns his attention to Hans Arp’s interest in mysticism and its influence on his artistic output. To that end, he consulted the many books on mysticism in Arp’s library, which is largely preserved in the artist’s former homes in Clamart, France and Lo- carno, Switzerland. Likewise, Isabella Ewig addresses the subject of Arp and mysticism in her exploration of his connections to Camille Bryen and Abhu- manism. In her essay on the Brazilian Lygia Clark, Heloisa Espada brings our attention to an artist working outside of Europe, demonstrating Arp’s wide-ranging impact once more. Alternately, Marta Smolin´ska addresses the avant-garde networks that had been established in the 1920s and 1930s, in which artists from Eastern Europe established highly influential positions. With this as her starting point, the art historian analyzes the neo-avant-garde in Poland and its fascination with Arp’s work. To complement these studies on Hans Arp as a visual artist, Agathe Mareuge turns to Arp’s poetry and analyzes the parallel processes he used to create both forms of art. The two final texts in this volume take up the subject of architecture, once again showing how Arp’s influence transcended genres. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen ex- plores curvilinear lines in the work of Hans Arp and the architect Alvar Aalto, tracing the connections and relationships between the two. Similarly, Dick van Gameren illuminates Arp’s overarching significance for architectural form in the twentieth century. Overall, we hope that the essays in this pub- lication will also lead to new scholarly engagement with the work and influ- ence of Hans Arp. Our third conference will be held in 2019, and once again we invite the circle of Arp enthusiasts to follow our plans as they develop. In accordance with our tradition of selecting a meaningful location, we have landed on the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel. The conference planned by the 13 Stiftung Arp e.V. will be dedicated to Arp’s contributions to the development of the sculpture of the twentieth century. With an emphasis on Arp’s work and those of his contemporaries, we hope to articulate the radical change that took place in sculpture over the course of the previous century. We would like to thank the authors for sharing their insights. An interna- tional volume of conference proceedings that brings together scholarship by authors from around the world requires not only engaging scholarship, but also translations that are just as thorough and precise. We offer our heartfelt thanks to Sarah McGavran for the translation from the German, Lynda Stringer for translating the French passages, and Marcin Turski for the trans- lation from the Polish. Not only did they translate these scholarly texts ac- curately, but they also transposed the words of the poet Hans Arp into Eng- lish with great finesse. Last but not least, we thank Kai Fischer for his assistance in finalizing this publication. 14 The Art of Hans Arp after 1945 An Introduction Maike Steinkamp In March of 1954, the German art critic Will Grohmann wrote in a newspa- per article: “Hans Arp is a phenomenon […].