Newly-built Arp museum opens in Germany's Rhine valley

A purpose-built museum of works of Franco- German artist Jean Arp, who also used the name Hans Arp, was opened Friday south of the German city of Bonn after weeks of public criticism of its board. Arp (1886-1966), a sculptor and poet who helped found the Dada movement, was born in the Alsace-Lorraine region. The museum, on a wooded slope above the Rhine river, was designed by Richard Meier of the United States. An opening show in the lavish building comprises 90 of Arp's works including his typical bronze forms which sometimes resemble outsized vegetables. German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended the opening, marking the Arp Museum's national importance. The Arp Association, which owns part of the art on show, has been attacked this month by the German arts media, which is generally hostile to any sales of work from public collections. The association, which has received state grants, rejected criticism of its fund-raising for the project by making new casts of some Arp sculptures and selling them. Arp's moulds still exist. The white three-storey museum has a view of the river valley and is situated on the outskirts of Remagen town. It includes an historic former railway station as a separate annexe. "It's got a fantastic view and an attention-getting design," said Kurt Beck, premier of Rhineland Palatinate state, at the inauguration. "The staff have got a practically inexhaustible fund of ideas." The museum was built entirely with government money at a cost of 33 million euros (47 million dollars). dpa jbp sc