SOURCE: “Arpshape,” in New Statesman, Vol. 87, No. 2244, March 22, 1974, pp. 404, 406.

In the following essay, Melly reviews Jean Arp: Collected French Writings, praising the book for providing a comprehensive view of Arp's major tenets as a writer and artist.

the egg of fire, the egg of water, the egg of wind in the silk bag, the egg of air 

Without cheating I open this book [Jean Arp: Collected French Writings] at random and point my finger at the page. I don't say I wouldn't have cheated if the result had seemed unsatisfactory, but Arp's favourite law, the law of chance, operated well enough.

Throughout a long and productive life as a sculptor, relief-maker, collagist, and maker of torn-paper pictures, Arp remained faithful to this law. In his poetry too he subscribed to its literary equivalent, automatism, and it was this which attracted him towards the Surrealist movement. He always detested...