Sophie Taeuber-Arp: The Overlooked Avant-Garde Polymath
Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) was a multifaceted Swiss artist, known for her work as a dancer, choreographer, architect, and textile designer. Despite her significant modernist influence, her legacy has often been eclipsed by her husband, Hans Arp, and her collaborator, Theo van Doesburg. After training in tapestry weaving, she became a member of the Werkbund in 1915 and taught textile arts at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule from 1916 until 1926. Taeuber-Arp married Arp in 1922 and was instrumental in the Dada movement, performing at Cabaret Voltaire in 1917. Together with Arp and van Doesburg, she decorated the Café de l’Aubette in Strasbourg in 1926. She designed her family residence in Meudon-Val Fleury (1926-1929) and established the journal Plastique (1937-1939). Unfortunately, historians frequently neglect to include her in discussions of Neoplastic architecture.
Key facts
- Sophie Taeuber-Arp was a Swiss artist, dancer, choreographer, architect, and textile designer.
- She trained as a tapestry weaver in St. Gallen, Hamburg, and Munich.
- She joined the Werkbund in 1915.
- She taught textile arts at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule from 1916 to 1926.
- She met Hans Arp at the International Exhibition of Modern Tapestries in 1915; they married in 1922.
- She performed at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1917 wearing a mask by Marcel Janco.
- She studied dance at the Laban School in Zurich and performed at Monte Verità.
- In 1926 the Horn brothers commissioned her to decorate the Café de l’Aubette in Strasbourg.
- She designed the family home in Meudon-Val Fleury between 1926 and 1929.
- Her stone house predated Le Corbusier's stone villas of the 1930s.
- She was active in Cercle et Carré in 1930 and Abstraction-Création in 1931.
- She founded and directed the journal Plastique from 1937 to 1939.
- She co-wrote a manual on textile art with Blanche Gauchet in 1927.
- Bruno Zevi and other historians omitted her from accounts of Neoplastic architecture.
Entities
Artists
- Sophie Taeuber-Arp
- Hans Arp
- Marcel Janco
- Hugo Ball
- Theo van Doesburg
- Bruno Zevi
- Kazimir Malevich
- Lilly Reich
- Blanche Gauchet
- Rudolf Laban
- Suzanne Perrottet
- Mary Wigman
- Le Corbusier
- Pierre Chareau
- Bernard Bijvoet
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Adolf Loos
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Hans Richter
- Paul Horn
- André Horn
Institutions
- Werkbund
- Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule
- Laban School
- Cabaret Voltaire
- Cercle et Carré
- Abstraction-Création
- Plastique
- Der Blaue Reiter
- Artribune
- International Exhibition of Modern Tapestries
- Café de l’Aubette
- Maison de Verre
- Monte Verità
Locations
- St. Gallen
- Switzerland
- Hamburg
- Germany
- Munich
- Zurich
- Strasbourg
- France
- Meudon-Val Fleury
- Meudon
- Ascona