Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Exhibition, Tate Modern, London: 15 July-17 October 2021

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) was a Swiss artist and designer, an important figure within abstract art and a key member of the Dadaist movement. This exhibition at the Tate Modern contains over 200 examples of Taeuber-Arp’s wide-ranging career up until her accidental death in 1943, aged 53. 

Taeuber studied Textile design going on to study fine and applied arts in Munich, before returning to Switzerland at the start of World War 1. Around this time, she attended dance school, met her husband artist Jean (Hans) Arp, as well as became a teacher of embroidery and design in Zurich.

Taeuber-Arp’s earlier work combined her knowledge of textiles with geometric shapes, rejecting the human form altogether, whilst embracing bright colours; the exhibition includes embroideries as well as decorative work including beaded bags, jewellery, rugs, pillowcases and tapestries, highlighting Taeuber-Arp’s interdisciplinary talent as a designer.

 During her time in Zurich Taeuber-Arp and her husband became active members of the Dadaist movement there, co-signing the Zurich Dada Manifesto. The Dada movement celebrated the ridiculous and the absurd within art and the group held evenings at the Cabaret Voltaire, performing dances, reciting nonsense poetry, and other performance art. Taeuber-Arp created marionettes for an interpretation of the play ‘King Stag’ which will be on display in the exhibition. 

In the 1920s Taeuber-Arp moved to France and continued to experiment with design; she was commissioned as an interior designer for the Café de L’Aubette and worked with De Stijl artist Theo Van Doesburg. She was a successful interior designer, employing primary colours, abstract and often geometric forms in a style similar to De Stijl.  After World War Two broke out, Taeuber-Arp left Paris and continued to work, moving her focus onto paper (an easily transportable material) and the circle. 

Taeuber-Arp tragically died in 1943 by carbon monoxide poisoning from an incorrectly fitting oven. This exhibition demonstrates her influence across 20th-century art and her talent as an interdisciplinary designer.