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Trois coupes superposées

1947 - 1954

Hans Arp

This sculpture is composed of three bowls with irregular shapes. The work appears to have grown organically and is somewhat reminiscent of the trunk of a palm tree. Hans Arp has fused organic with geometric forms, the natural with the considered. Straight lines rarely appear in his work.

© SABAM Belgium 2025. Photo: Tom Cornille

Details

  • Plan number: V25
  • Zone: Entanglement
  • Title: Trois coupes superposées (Three Stacked Bowls)
  • Creator: Hans Arp
  • Date: 1947 - 1954
  • Material: bronze
  • Acquisition: purchase, 1955
  • Object number: MID.B.071

Arp described the artist’s work as the fruit of a plant: always natural and evolving. He himself called it biomorphic art: inspired by nature, but without being a realistic representation of it.

Hans Arp allowed his sculptures to grow. In his words: “I do not work after nature but like nature.” the sculpture seems to emerge from a natural, organic process. Arp thus lifted the distinction between human and natural processes of making. Humans and nature are indivisibly fused with each other. 

Because of his dual Franco-German nationality, Hans Arp is also known as Jean Arp. A heavyweight in modern art, he helped found Dadaism in 1916. He was active as a painter and poet, but is best known as a sculptor for his reliefs and sculptures with rounded organic forms.

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