I did exhibitions with the Surrealists (in Paris, in 1929) because their attitude revolted against 'art' and their attitude toward life itself was wise, as was Dada's.

Hans Arp

Categorized in : Art Attitude Wise

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a c... by Hans Arp

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's womb.

mother children art

While guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might. We were seeking an art based on fundamentals, to cure the madness of the age, and find a new order of things that would restore the balance between heaven and hell.

distance gun art

Dada aimed to destroy the reasonable deceptions of man and recover the natural and unreasonable order.

deception men order

Often the hands grasp more quickly than the head. by Hans Arp

Often the hands grasp more quickly than the head.

understanding hands

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.

technology essence men

I allow myself to be guided by the work which is in the process of being born. I have confidence in it. I do not think about it.

born process thinking

Any work that is not rooted in myth and poetry or that does not partake of the depth and essence of the universe is merely a ghost.

depth essence doe

I use very little red. I use blue, yellow, a little green, but especially... black, white and grey. There is a certain need in me for communication with human beings. Black and white is writing.

black-and-white communication writing

We do not wish to imitate nature, we do not wish to reproduce. We want to produce. We want to produce the way a plant produces its fruit, not depict. We want to produce directly, not indirectly. Since there is not a trace of abstraction in this art we call it concrete art.

wish want art

The essence of a sculpture must enter on tip-toe, as light as ani... by Hans Arp

The essence of a sculpture must enter on tip-toe, as light as animal footprints on snow.

light essence animal

Zurich in 1915,... While the thunder of the batteries rumbled in the distance, we pasted, we recited, we versified, we sang with all our soul. We searched for an elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the madness of these times.

zurich distance art

DaDa is beautiful like the night, who cradles the young day in he... by Hans Arp

DaDa is beautiful like the night, who cradles the young day in her arms.

arms beautiful night

All things, and man as well, should be like nature, without measu... by Hans Arp

All things, and man as well, should be like nature, without measure.

nature should men

To be full of joy when looking at an oeuvre is not a little thing... by Hans Arp

To be full of joy when looking at an oeuvre is not a little thing.

little-things littles joy

Dada was given the Venus of Milo a clyster and has allowed the Laocoön and his sons to rest awhile, after thousands of years of struggle with the good sausage Python. The philosophers are of less use to Dada than an old toothbrush, and it leaves them on the scrap heap for the great leaders of the world.

python struggle son

The important thing about Dada, it seems to me, is that Dadaists despised what is commonly regarded as art, but put the whole universe on the lofty throne of art.

thrones important art

Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his [mankind's] ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.

anxiety ego noise

Since the time of the cavemen, man has glorified himself, has made himself divine, and his monstrous vanity has caused human catastrophe. Art has collaborated in this false development. I find this concept of art which has sustained man's vanity to be loathsome.

vanity men art

A painting or sculpture not modelled on any real object is every bit as concrete and sensuous as a leaf or a stone... but it is an incomplete art which privileges the intellect to the detriment of the senses.

sculpture real art

the streams buck like rams in a tent / whips crack and from the hills come the crookedly combed /shadows of the shepherds. /black eggs and fools' bells fall from the trees. / thunder drums and kettledrums beat upon the ears of the donkeys. / wings brush against flowers. / fountains spring up in the eyes of the wild boar.

flower spring fall