AKA contemporary
The Studio, 54a Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 7AA
tel: 01223 340299 email:info@akafineart.co.uk
Hans Arp
1886 - 1966
AKA Fine Art's interest in Arp
AKA's logo is based on the second edition of a series of 10 prints called ‘Plakat Basel’ made by Hans Arp whilst he was living in Basel in 1962. The Bauhaus movement is much adored by the directors of AKA contemporary and this drove the decision to make it the logo. A pragmatic creative process with attention to colour theorem and the unification of individual artistic expression and function were key principles of Bauhaus teaching. The hope to create a 'comprehensive artwork', unifying all forms of art, meant that such ideas were present not just in architecture but in painting and print also.
Hans Arps’ admirable dedication to the avant-garde and consistent involvement in engineering new art movements throughout the 20th Century encapsulates a legacy AKA wishes to preserve. Honouring the life and ethos of Arp, AKA contemporary focuses on exhibiting contemporary art and searches for new and exciting artists to be lucky enough to host in the gallery. The revolutionary efforts of the artists like Arp that shaped modernism are echoed throughout the gallery in a desire for the engaging innovation and progression of art of the past to live on.
'Art is a fruit that grows in man like a fruit on a plant or a child in its mother's womb'
- Hans Arp
The Life of Hans Arp
Popularly known as Jean Arp
Dada to Surrealism
In his earlier years Hans Arp was a key player in the Dada movement, creating a huge body of work with a focus on ‘chance collages’. For these Arp embraced the ideals of chaos that centred Dadaism, allowing pieces of paper to fall at random down onto the page and sticking them where they fell. Arp was a poet as well as an artist, writing for Dada magazine’s and others such as ‘De Stijl’. He became integral to the development of art movements in the early 20th century, later helping pioneer Surrealism and featuring in the first real Surrealist exhibition in 1925.
Dada 4, Arp's print cover. 1919
Photo of Arp published in De Stijl Vol. 7 ,1926
Sculpture
Hans Arp moved towards sculpture during the 1930’s, creating the works that would carry his legacy through time. In 1937, his sculptures were part of two exhibitions at the New York Museum of Modern Art, proving his international importance to the art world. Arp with a continued dedication to artistic revolution and innovation, was interested not only in Surrealism but also in abstract art, aiding the founding of Abstraction - Creation. A movement that most of his sculptures would be categorised under.
'Evocation of a form: Human, Lunar, Spectral' Bronze 1950
Legacy
In his later years he continued to produce a huge body of work and at the height of his international fame he received the Grand prize for Sculpture at La Biennale di Venezia in 1956. The final decade of Hans Arps’ life saw that his legacy was preserved, with two retrospectives held for him at the the Museums of Modern Art in New York and Paris in 1958 and 1962.
Today his work hangs in the entrance of AKA contemporary, invoking discussion and enhancing a contemporary atmosphere with eternally valuable ideology of artistic revolution and rebellion.
'Plakat Basel' hung in the AKA contemporary gallery, 2024
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