The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2023

Forest

1916

Jean Arp

(French, 1887–1966)

France, 20th century

Painted wood

Overall: 41.3 x 53 x 8.3 cm (16 1/4 x 20 7/8 x 3 1/4 in.)

Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1970.52

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Location

225 German Expressionism & Surrealism

Description

This relief of painted wood was inspired by the branches, roots, and foliage Arp observed around Ascona, a Swiss town on Lake Maggiore. Ascona was an important meeting place for the Dada group Arp helped establish around 1915. Dada artists gathered in Switzerland to escape the senseless slaughter and dehumanizing, industrialized combat of World War I. Arp's ambition was to create a radically new art suggesting the simplest, most naive elements.

Provenance
Roland Penrose Collection, London
Paul Éluard Collection, Paris
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 246 archive.org
Henning, Edward B. The Spirit of Surrealism. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979. Reproduced: p. 16, no. 6A, Colorplate VII; Mentioned: p. 15-16, 171
Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 126, no. 34
Spies, Christian. "Sculpture and/or Object: Hans Arp Between Minimal and Pop." In Hans Arp and Other Masters of 20th Century Sculpture. Elisa Tamaschke, Jana Teuscher, and Loretta Wurtenberger, eds., 142-159. Berlin: Stiftung Hans Arp & Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 142-143, fig. 2
Exhibition history

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2/19/2006 - 5/14/2006) and Museum of Modern Art, New York (6/16/2006 - 9/11/2006): "Dada" ex. cat. no. 38, p. 67.

Museum of Modern Art, New York (12/23/2012 - 4/15/2013): "Inventing Abstraction, 1912-1925", ex. cat. no. 340, p. 285.

Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).

Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).

Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001).

Dada. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (February 19-May 14, 2006); The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (June 16-September 11, 2006).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).

Inventing Abstraction, 1912-1925. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (December 23, 2012-April 15, 2013).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.52