Cercle Rouge

Designed by Hans Arp between 1928 and 1930, Cercle Rouge translates one of the artist’s early biomorphic compositions into woven form. A luminous red circle anchors the composition against a slate-grey field, while curved black, ivory, and blue shapes move across the surface in Arp’s signature organic rhythm.

Arp (1886–1966), a founding figure of Dada and early Surrealism, was known for creating abstract forms inspired by nature and chance. In Cercle Rouge, these soft, irregular shapes interact with a more structured background, creating a quiet tension between organic movement and geometric order.

This example was hand-knotted around 1960 and produced by Marie Cuttoli in collaboration with Galerie Lucie Weill in Paris. Cuttoli played a crucial role in the revival of modern artist textiles, encouraging figures such as Arp, Picasso, and Léger to translate their work into woven form. Rugs produced through her workshops are considered some of the earliest and most important examples of modern art entering the textile medium.

The design is also well documented in the literature on modernist carpets, appearing in Sally Sherrill’s Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America and Dey’s Art Deco and Modernist Carpets.

Preserved in perfect condition and bearing the artist’s woven signature on the reverse, Cercle Rouge is a striking example of Arp’s biomorphic abstraction brought into the warmth and texture of wool.