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· Swiss · 1889–1943

Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Swiss artist, designer, and dancer whose geometric abstraction, textiles, performances, and turned-wood Dada heads erased the hierarchy between fine art and applied art.

Details

Lived
1889–1943
Born
1889
Birthplace
Davos, Switzerland
Died
1943
Place of death
Zurich
Nationality
Swiss
Roles
PainterSculptorDesignerDancer

About Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp worked across painting, textiles, design, sculpture, teaching, and dance. During the Zurich Dada years she brought geometric abstraction and applied-art techniques into a movement too often remembered only for noise and disorder. The Kunsthaus Zürich describes her as moving between craft and the avant-garde while teaching textile design at Zurich's School of Arts and Crafts from 1916 to 1929.

Her 1920 Dada Head makes that crossing tangible: a turned wooden form painted with curves, blocks of color, the date, the word DADA, and her initials. It was the last of her Dada-head series. The Centre Pompidou notes both its possible practical use as a hat holder and its joke about portraiture, two ideas that refuse a firm border between sculpture and designed object.

Selected works

Cataloged from the holding institutions' records. Reproductions appear only where the rights are verified.

Sculptures

Taeuber-Arp's Dada Head: a turned wooden oval head painted with red, blue, black, white, and gold geometric forms, mounted on a slender painted base

Artwork reproduction

Sculpture · Dada

Dada Head

1920 · Turned and painted wood

A turned wooden head painted with geometric shapes and bright colours, bringing sculpture and craft together.

Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Dada Head, 1920. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris. Image: CC BY 3.0.

Movements

The artistic and literary currents this life ran through.

Pen-and-ink Dada collage with a mannequin head, bicycle wheel, chess knight, gears, torn paper, stage curtains, and a suspended gloved hand

Art movement · c. 1916–1924

Dada

A Zurich Dada artist and performer whose abstract textiles, dance, and turned-wood heads joined the fine and applied arts.

— Sophie Taeuber, Rythmes libres, 1919; Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tête dada (1920)

Sourced claims

Every connection the graph holds for Sophie, with the evidence behind it.

Associated with

Dada

A Zurich Dada artist and performer whose abstract textiles, dance, and turned-wood heads joined the fine and applied arts.

— Sophie Taeuber, Rythmes libres, 1919; Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tête dada (1920)

References

References

The sources below include biographies, scholarly essays, interviews, and primary materials that informed this page. They reflect both the historical record and ongoing critical conversations about Sophie Taeuber-Arp and their work.

  1. 1Hans (Jean) Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp — Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck

    Website
    Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Sophie Taeuber-Arp page.

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  2. 2Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tête dada (1920)

    Website
    Centre Pompidou
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Sophie Taeuber-Arp page.

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  1. 3Sophie Taeuber-Arp

    Official record
    Museum of Modern Art
    Used for

    Official record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.

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  2. 4Sophie Taeuber, Rythmes libres, 1919

    Website
    Kunsthaus Zürich
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Sophie Taeuber-Arp page.

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Why these sources are here

These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.

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