Sophie Henriette Gertrude Taeuber-Arp (1889 – 1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect and dancer. She was the fifth child of Prussian pharmacist and Swiss mother. Her parents operated a pharmacy until her father died of tuberculosis when she was two years old.
Taeuber-Arp studied textile design at the trade school (Gewerbeschule, today School of Applied Arts). She then moved on to the workshop of Wilhelm von Debschitz at his school in Munich.
In 1915, at an exhibition at the Tanner Gallery, she met the Dada artist Jean "Hans" Arp, who had moved to Zurich in 1915 to avoid being drafted by the German Army. They were to collaborate on numerous joint projects until her death in 1943. They married in 1922 and she changed her last name to Taeuber-Arp.
Taeuber-Arp taught weaving and other textile arts from 1916 to 1929. Her textile and graphic works from around 1916 through the 1920s are among the earliest Constructivist works, along with those of Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich. These sophisticated geometric abstractions reflect a subtle understanding of the interplay between colour and form.
Taeuber-Arp was also close friends and contemporaries with the French-Romanian avant-garde poet, essayist, and artist, Tristan Tzara, one of the central figures of the Dada movement. In 1920, Tzara solicited over four dozen Dadaist artists, among which were Taeuber-Arp, Jean Arp, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, and Hannah Hoch. Tzara planned to use the contributed text and images to create an anthology of Dada work entitled Dadaglobe. A worldwide release of 10,000 copies was planned, but the project was abandoned when its main backer, Francis Picabia, distanced himself from Tzara in 1921.
In 1926 Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp moved to Strasbourg, where both took up French citizenship; after which they divided their time between Strasbourg and Paris. There Taeuber-Arp received numerous commissions for interior design projects.
She appears to be the first artist to use polka dots in fine art with works such as Dynamic Circles, 1934, in the footsteps of Kazimir Malevich and his Black Circle (1915).
Later in the decade she founded a Constructivist review, Plastique (Plastic) in Paris. She was also a member of Allianz, a union of Swiss painters, from 1937 to 1943.
Wassily Kandinsky said: "Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressed herself by means of the 'colored relief,' especially in the last years of her life, using almost exclusively the simplest forms, geometric forms. The forms, by their sobriety, their silence, their way of being sufficient unto themselves, invite the hand, if it is skillful, to use the language that is suitable to it and which is often only a whisper; but often too the whisper is more expressive, more convincing, more persuasive, than the 'loud voice' that here and there lets itself burst out."
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Sophie Taeuber-Arp or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
Taeuber-Arp studied textile design at the trade school (Gewerbeschule, today School of Applied Arts). She then moved on to the workshop of Wilhelm von Debschitz at his school in Munich.
In 1915, at an exhibition at the Tanner Gallery, she met the Dada artist Jean "Hans" Arp, who had moved to Zurich in 1915 to avoid being drafted by the German Army. They were to collaborate on numerous joint projects until her death in 1943. They married in 1922 and she changed her last name to Taeuber-Arp.
Taeuber-Arp taught weaving and other textile arts from 1916 to 1929. Her textile and graphic works from around 1916 through the 1920s are among the earliest Constructivist works, along with those of Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich. These sophisticated geometric abstractions reflect a subtle understanding of the interplay between colour and form.
Taeuber-Arp was also close friends and contemporaries with the French-Romanian avant-garde poet, essayist, and artist, Tristan Tzara, one of the central figures of the Dada movement. In 1920, Tzara solicited over four dozen Dadaist artists, among which were Taeuber-Arp, Jean Arp, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, and Hannah Hoch. Tzara planned to use the contributed text and images to create an anthology of Dada work entitled Dadaglobe. A worldwide release of 10,000 copies was planned, but the project was abandoned when its main backer, Francis Picabia, distanced himself from Tzara in 1921.
In 1926 Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp moved to Strasbourg, where both took up French citizenship; after which they divided their time between Strasbourg and Paris. There Taeuber-Arp received numerous commissions for interior design projects.
She appears to be the first artist to use polka dots in fine art with works such as Dynamic Circles, 1934, in the footsteps of Kazimir Malevich and his Black Circle (1915).
Later in the decade she founded a Constructivist review, Plastique (Plastic) in Paris. She was also a member of Allianz, a union of Swiss painters, from 1937 to 1943.
Wassily Kandinsky said: "Sophie Taeuber-Arp expressed herself by means of the 'colored relief,' especially in the last years of her life, using almost exclusively the simplest forms, geometric forms. The forms, by their sobriety, their silence, their way of being sufficient unto themselves, invite the hand, if it is skillful, to use the language that is suitable to it and which is often only a whisper; but often too the whisper is more expressive, more convincing, more persuasive, than the 'loud voice' that here and there lets itself burst out."
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Sophie Taeuber-Arp or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Ms Sophie Taeuber-Arp |
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| 1917, Elementary Forms |
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| 1918, Arch pattern composition |
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| 1918, Marionetten zu König Hirsch, Deramo |
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| 1918, Marionetten zu König Hirsch, Dr. Complex |
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| 1918, Military Guards (Die Wachen) |
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| 1918, Untitled (Composition with Squares, Circle, Rectangles, Triangels) |
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| 1918, Untitled |
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| 1918-20, Halskette |
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| 1920, Dada carpet |
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| 1920, Dada Composition (Tête au plat) |
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| 1920, Dada Head |
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| 1920, Testa Dada |
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| 1921, Aches quadrangulaires, polychromes, denses |
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| 1922, Costume ‘Hopi-Indianer’ |
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| 1922, Oval Composition with Abstract Motifs |
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| 1926-27, Abstract composition |
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| 1927, Projet pour l'Aubette |
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| 1928, Vertical and horizontal composition |
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| 1930, Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles |
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| 1931, Composition |
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| 1931, Échelonnement désaxé |
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| 1931, Plans et triangles pointe sur pointe |
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| 1932, Four spaces with red rolling circles |
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| 1932, Quatre espaces à croix bleue brisée |
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| 1932, Quatre espaces à croix brisée |
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| 1933, Schematic Composition |
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| 1934, Échelonnement désaxé |
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| 1934, Rising, Falling, Flying |
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| 1937, Composition dans un cercle |
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| 1939, Six Espaces Distinct |
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| 1940, Grasse: geometric and wavy lines |
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| 1942, Construction d’un cercle noir et segments bordeaux rouges et bleus |
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| 1942, Plate (folio 20) from 10 Origin |
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| 1945, Plate (folio 24) from "5 Constructionen + 5 Compositionen" |
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| 1956, Untitled (Pochoir) |
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| 1958, Composition |
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| Taeuber-Arp on the 50 Swiss Francs note |
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