Arp, Jean. Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance, 1916-17. 13x19"From the Dada movement emerged Jean (Hans) Arp (b. 1887), an artist –– and Virgo –– from Alsace who studied in Paris and Switzerland. What's interesting about Arp is his split identity: when he was born Alsace was German territory (although it had previously belonged to France), but following WWI Alsace was ceded to France. Then it was returned back to Germany in 1940 during WWII. But wait -- it was then re-retroceded to France in 1945. At the end of WWI Arp changed his name from the German Hans to the French Jean. To have your homeland have such an impermanent place in the world must have been very unsettling. Not feeling like you have a firm place in the world is also a bit frustrating.
This frustration was apparent in Arp's inability to find a sure direction for his art in the early 1900s. This dissatisfaction lead him to destroy most of his pre-1915 work in true Virgo "perfect is almost good enough" fashion. The above collage was created using torn bits of paper and was conceived of when Arp became disappointed by a drawing he had made and tore it up, dropped the pieces on the floor, and noticed the arrangement. To find something from nothing doesn't really make much sense, but it is rather inspiring. Arp freed the medium from the creative process, and in doing so he threw away the perfect, the rational and the real to let his art just be. It became okay for the inspiration (paper) to be the art (again, paper).
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