The Aargauer Kunsthaus, in Switzerland shows a retrospective of Sophie Taeuber-Arp through a large number of works in various media ranging from paper works, oil paintings and sculptures, to textile and costume designs, woven objects and jewellery, puppets, lamps and furniture. The variety of formats comprehensively show the interrelationships between the works and the different fields — from art to design — that she genuinely masters.

Equilibre, 1931. Oil on canvas, 32 x 25.5 cm. Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau / Schenkung aus der Sammlung Müller-Widmann, Basel

Aubette 200 (Gedrehte Deckenzeichnung für die Aubette-Bar), circa 1927. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 24.4 x 31.8 cm. Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V. © Wolfgang Morell

Composition verticale-horizontale, 1916. Pencil and colored pencil oncardboard, 35.5 x 31 cm
Collection Natalie et Léon Seroussi © Galerie Natalie Seroussi

Composition verticale-horizontale, 1916. Pencil and colored pencil on cardboard, 35.5 x 31 cm
Collection Natalie et Léon Seroussi © Galerie Natalie Seroussi

Coquilles et fleurs, 1938. Painted wood. Diameter 59.5 cm
Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V. © Wolfgang Morell

Ohne Titel (Teppich), 1918. Weaving, wool, 80 x 70 cm Fondazione Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach, Locarno © SIK-ISEA, Zürich (Philipp Hitz)

Bag circa1918. Bead embroidery, 15.5 x 12.5 cm.
Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau / Depositum aus Privatbesitz © Peter Schälchli, Zürich

Self-portrait in Strasbourg, 1926. B/w photography. Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V.

“Born in Davos in 1889, Sophie Taeuber-Arp grew up in an emancipated and culturally open-minded milieu in Trogen in the Canton of Appenzell. From 1912 until 1914 Sophie Taeuber-Arp studied at the renowned Teaching and Experimental Studios for Applied Art in Munich, and Hamburg. In 1916 she was offered a position teaching textile design at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. She continued to teach there until 1929, setting new standards in textile design. In 1915 she met Hans Arp whom she married in 1922. Both were active in the context of the Zurich-based Dada movement. Sophie Taeuber-Arp appeared as a dancer both at the Cabaret Voltaire and later at the Galerie Dada. As a 27 year-old, Sophie Taeuber-Arp received her first major commission as an interior architect, which involved decorating the Aubette, a modern entertainment centre in Strasbourg, together with Hans Arp and Theo van Doesburg. In  1929 Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans Arp moved to France where they lived in a house conceived by Taeuber-Arp in Clamart-Meudon near Paris. Even more than in Zurich and stimulated by the close contact to the Paris art scene, Sophie Taeuber-Arp from then on focused on her artistic work. When the Germans marched into Paris in 1940 the couple was forced to flee to Grasse in the south of France and later back to Switzerland.”

Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Today Is Tomorrow
23 August – 16 November 2014
Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (CH)
www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch