Veranstaltungen

Die Schweizerin Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) war eine Pionierin der Abstraktion. In ihrem interdisziplinären Schaffen ebnete sie mit scheinbar spielender Leichtigkeit die althergebrachten Grenzen zwischen Kunst und Leben ein. Die Experimentierfreude der Avantgarde-Zirkel von Zürich und Paris, denen sie angehörte, und ihre kunsthandwerkliche Ausbildung und Lehrtätigkeit verschmolzen zu einer gelebten, angewandten Abstraktion, mit der sie nahezu alle Lebensbereiche gestaltete. Bei ihrem tragischen Unfalltod 1943 umfasste ihr Œuvre Textilien wie Kissen und Tischdecken, Perlarbeiten, ein Marionettentheater, Kostüme, Wandmalerei, Möbel, Architektur, Grafikdesign, Malerei, Zeichnung, Skulptur und Reliefs.

A long overdue recognition of Taeuber-Arp’s pivotal contribution to modern art and design Sophie Taeuber-Arp was one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the 1920s and 30s. Her multidisciplinary work has enduring influence, inspiring innovative artists and designers around the world. Taeuber-Arp’s creative output was extraordinarily diverse and at times controversial. She made embroideries and paintings, carved sculptures and edited magazines, created puppets and mysterious Dada objects. She combined traditional crafts with the vocabulary of modernist abstraction, challenging the boundaries separating art and design. This is the first retrospective of her work ever held in the UK. It brings together her principal works from major collections in Europe and the US, most of which have never been seen in this country before.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) was one of the most multitalented of modern artists, creating profoundly innovative work across many disciplines. This exhibition traces her career’s trajectory: from applied arts teacher, participant in the Dada movement, and maker of textiles and objects; to designer of murals, stained glass windows, furniture, interiors, and buildings; to painter-sculptor, magazine editor, and early champion of geometric abstraction. For Taeuber-Arp, abstraction was always connected to an everyday lived reality in which objects were to be used and manipulated, spaces to be moved about in, and artworks to be looked at and experienced. Her creations responded to their time and place of making, in keeping with Taeuber-Arp’s expressed ambition to make “living things” in “a new style that is fitting for us.” Her fluid movement between genres, disciplines, and creative roles makes her especially relevant for contemporary artists, while her work proposes a more open-ended and inclusive way of thinking about the history of modern art. This is the first retrospective of her work ever held in the UK. It brings together her principal works from major collections in Europe and the US, most of which have never been seen in this country before.