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R. H. Gapper Book Prize awarded to Eric Robertson Eric Robertson's book is the first major study to consider in depth the multiple strands of the work of Hans (or Jean) Arp and the dynamics of the relationships between his poetry (in both French and German) and his highly diverse visual output, which included painting, sculpture, wood reliefs, woodcuts and collage. In focusing upon the interaction among his textual, pictorial and sculptural works, Professor Robertson not only stresses the plurality of Arp's œuvre and its resistance to generic, stylistic or periodic classification, but also rehabilitates his often-neglected poetic production and demonstrates its centrality as both stimulus and counterpoint to his work in visual and sculptural media. The range of Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor is remarkable, the analysis moving deftly between the French and German texts, and from the texts to the sculptures, bas-reliefs, papiers collés, papiers déchirés and papiers froissés, elucidating with immense virtuousity and insight the multiple meanings of individual works and the tensions and patterns within the œuvre as a whole (Arp's exploration of aleatory principles and of seriality, the inherent asceticism of his approach and the tendency towards the minimal and the monochrome, the processes of amendment, recycling and reconfiguration to which he subjected both texts and visual artworks, the various mechanisms used to involve both reader and viewer). Professor Robertson's book is a landmark in scholarship on Arp and will have a far-reaching impact on the study of his place in twentieth-century culture. Eric Robertson
is Professor of Modern French Literary and Visual Culture at
Royal Holloway,
University of London. He is currently
completing a book exploring the writings of Blaise Cendrars in
the light of his interactions with artists, photographers and filmmakers,
including Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Robert Doisneau, Abel Gance,
Fernand Léger and Léopold Survage. Two co-edited
volumes of essays on Dada are due The award, which is for the best book published in 2006 by a scholar working in Britain or Ireland in French studies, was made by the Editors of the journal French Studies, together with Mr Richard Gapper, representing the R. H. Gapper Charitable Trust. The R. H. Gapper Book Prize will be presented to Professor Robertson at the next Society for French Studies annual conference, which takes place in the University of Liverpool, 30 June - 2 July 2008. More information about the R.H. Gapper Book Prize is available here
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