![]() In 1943, Taeuber-Arp sadly died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She joined several artists’ organisations, including the abstract artists’ group Cercle et Carré, edited and wrote for radical publications, and exhibited her work throughout Europe alongside artists Sonia Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier and Piet Mondrian. The café commission brought her international acclaim. Taeuber-Arp’s exploration of applied art and design expanded from objects into the lived environment. ![]() The dynamic abstract environments she created immersed the viewer in geometric shapes and vibrant colour. Taeuber-Arp took sole charge of the design concept for the Five o’Clock Tea Room, the Aubette Bar and the Foyer Bar, while collaborating with Arp and van Doesburg on other elements. Given the scale of the project they asked the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg to join them. In 1926 she and Arp were invited to redesign a wing of the Aubette building in Strasbourg as a modernist entertainment complex. In the late 1920s and early 1930, Taeuber-Arp’s focus shifted to architectural and interior design. From collages and watercolors to stage sets and sculptures of abstracted heads, Taeuber-Arp’s works from this time are considered icons of the dada period. A photograph from the time shows her performance at the opening of Galerie Dada in 1917, dancing to founder of the dada movement, Hugo Ball’s sound poems in an avant-garde costume and mask. She embraced dada’s absurdist, playful and radical practices. Taeuber-Arp was a key member and one of the few women artists within the group. This group of artists, poets and performers challenged the rationalism and social conventions that they believed had led to the war. One of the most radical movements to emerge as a result of the war was dada. Among them was fellow artist Hans (Jean) Arp, who would become Sophie Taeuber’s lifelong partner. The city became a centre for the avant-garde. Artists, writers and thinkers from across Europe who wanted to escape from the conflict settled in Zurich. Switzerland remained neutral during the First World War. Art critic and writer Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia recalled that Taeuber-Arp compared her compositions to the popular game of boules. The elements retain a sense of movement and were compared to pieces in a game which could be moved around. In the 1930s, Taueber-Arp began working on a series known as ‘multispace compositions’ and ‘schematic compositions’ constructed on a white or black background from aligned circles, squares, rectangles and crosses. This approach opened the way to further inventions and her later experiments with textiles, jewellery, architecture, furniture, stained glass and painting. This modular concept, inspired by textile structure, demonstrates the artist’s creative process. Created between 19, they all have a grid structure and carefully thought through colour scheme. This approach stood apart from other modernist artists working at the time.įirst, she developed a group of vertical-horizontal compositions. While other artists reached abstraction through a gradual process of breaking down and simplifying figurative forms, she drew directly on the grid structures of textiles. Working first in Switzerland, then France, Taeuber-Arp developed her distinctive visual style during the First World War.
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