Whilst staying in Venice, I paid a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. A big exhibition was devoted to Hans Arp, better known as Jean Arp, the dada artist and sculptor. You will have seen his distinct organically flowing sculptures. It was only in the very last section of the exhibition that an important factor of Jean Arp’s being, creativity and success emerged: His wife Sophie Taeuber.
I bet you have never heard of her. This is her story.
Sophie was portrayed in the said Venice exhibition as a clever business lady securing a living by renovating and letting out property near Strasbourg, influencing Jean Arp’s work and providing financial stability.
I was intrigued. I couldn’t shake the strange feeling that there was more to this woman than the museum’s curators had displayed in the last hurried section of this show.
After some research later on, I was truly shocked. How could I have not known this? Sophie wasn’t just the wife. She was the force and apparently a more authentic and diverse artist than the famous husband. We just don’t know about her.
We know men as frontrunners and celebrated artists. But as in so many cases, the driving, inspiring and sometimes often superior forces were and are women. Sophie Taeuber-Arp was not only a pragmatic mover and shaker; she was an important artist in her very own right spearheading European art avant-garde in the first half of the last century.
The future will see a lasting deep dive into the legacy of this amazing woman, I am sure of that, and so here is my very own contribution, a shout-out to celebrate her life and achievements. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give it up for Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
~ EARLY YEARS ~
Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber was born in 1889 in Davos, Switzerland. Her parents were operating a pharmacy until her dad died when she was only two years old. Her mum then apparently tried to make ends meet and moved the family to the northern part of Switzerland, namely Trogen, where the mum operated a boardinghouse.
Sophie seemed to have been an agile and unusual woman for her time. 17 years old, she studied textile design for four years at the School of Applied Arts in St. Gallen. It might be that her choice of trade was influenced by the area where she was bought up as the village of Trogen was in the 18th century dominated by the local Zellweger family which enjoyed success with textile production and trade.
Sophie then joined an influential art school in Munich, the workshop of Wilhelm von Debschitz, a German painter, interior designer, craftsman and art teacher. Furniture design, metal, textile and ceramic works were the focus, and made her connect with important artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, while Paul Klee gave classes there as assistant in a figure-drawing course. This school, it is rumoured, was a model for the later Bauhaus.
Moving around several art schools, and true to her curious nature, Sophie also took up dancing on a professional level while joining the artist colony of Monte Verita in Southern Switzerland. This colony was another quirky twist of bohemian savoir-vivre apparently promoting strict vegetarianism and nudism, rejecting conventional thoughts about marriage, dress and party politics true to the motto: Tolerantly Intolerant. Ha!
In hindsight, Dada looks like the orderly yet wild great aunt of Punk, and an observer might have felt Sophie too reticent and unassuming to be a central figure of the clamorous Dada crowd.
A remarkable thing happened in 1916, when Sophie was 27 years old, as she was involved in an artistic nightclub in Zurich, the cabaret “Kuenstlerkneipe” Voltaire. And this was the beginning of the subversive First-World-War-shaming “Dada” art movement which she had initiated to shape and to provide content beyond the theoretical signing of a manifesto.
In hindsight, Dada looks like the orderly yet wild great aunt of Punk, and an observer might have felt Sophie too reticent and unassuming to be a central figure of the clamorous Dada crowd. People might confuse such self-effacement with thinking that one doesn’t want attention. One does, one just hasn’t learnt to claim attention or hasn’t been educated to promote herself, that’s all.
~ FORMING HER VOICE ~
Sophie took part in Dada-inspired performances as a dancer, choreographer and puppeteer, while she created puppets, costumes and sets for performances both at the Cabaret Voltaire and for other Swiss and French playhouses.
It is said that Sophie’s textile and graphic oeuvre, expressed in sophisticated geometric abstractions from 1916 through the 1920s are among the earliest Constructivist works, along with those of Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich. Her sculptural works of that time, her “Dada Heads”, are considered an iconic symbol of Dada. I see them as her joyful and innovative interpretation of abstract art and craftsmanship.
Expanding her skills and securing a living, Sophie was teaching embroidery and design classes at an art school, too. At 40 years, Sophie was an accomplished artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, lecturer, furniture and interior designer, architect and dancer.
In the meantime, Sophie had met Jean “Hans” Arp whom she married in her early thirties. This made her change her name to “Sophie Taeuber-Arp”. I am not a specialist in naming conventions but I think for a non-aristocratic marriage having taken place 100 years ago in continental Europe, that’s quite astounding that the woman’s last name was preserved in any shape or form.
From what I read, Sophie was playful, different, not so much concerned about her image or self-promotion, but about expressing herself.
I quite like the words of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky applauding Sophie that she was “using almost exclusively the simplest forms, geometric forms. The forms, by their sobriety, their silence, their way of being sufficient unto themselves .. is often only a whisper; but often too the whisper is more expressive, more convincing, more persuasive, than the ‘loud voice’ that here and there lets itself burst out.”
~ THRIVING IN PARIS ~
In 1926, thirty-seven-year-old Sophie moved to France and the next 14 years before fleeing Paris ahead of the Nazi occupation proved a fruitful hotbed for Sophie’s artistic and personal development.
Dividing her time between Strasbourg and Paris, Sophie connects and hangs out with artists like Sonia Delaunay, Kandinsky, Joan Miro and Marcel Duchamp; she embarks on graphic design experiments and interior design projects like the Café de l’Aubette; she takes a stab at literary endeavours co-authoring a book; she participates in exhibitions; she founds and edits an international journal, the Constructivist Review “Plastique”; she participates in art groups like “Cercle et Carré”, “Abstraction-Création” and an union of Swiss painters named “Allianz”.
Apart from the gender bias towards focusing on men in history, it is this complexity of Sophie’s approach to art that has been hard to grasp for compartmentation-seeking scholars.
Influenced by trailblazer architectress Charlotte Perriand, Bauhaus and Le Corbusier, Sophie designs in 1930 her and her husband’s main residence located between Paris and Versailles. Sophie’s architectural oeuvre is now a museum hosting one of the three Arp Foundations.
Sophie was a champion of concrete art and geometric abstraction. She didn’t stick to paths well-travelled and wasn’t concerned if her art was to be labelled design, craft, applied or fine art. She recognised beauty and made it her own through considerately crafted presentations while experimenting with a 360 degree spectrum of media. This is her trademark, a holistic artistic expression.
Apart from the gender bias towards focusing on men in history, it is this complexity of Sophie’s approach to art that has been hard to grasp for compartmentation-seeking scholars.
~ ~ ~
Sophie was the poster girl of a pure artist, creating art for art’s sake. Deep down I think we are all trading in a basic emotional currency which is attention and recognition for ourselves. This makes me believe that Sophie’s rather introverted approach was not a fully conscious choice. It is a rather undeveloped entitlement most women show when it comes to collecting the reward for their achievements and lacking assertiveness overcoming the world’s (read: mostly men) pushback strategies when it comes to dividing the recognition pie fairly.
Not women’s fault per se as girls are traditionally raised to fulfil and execute tasks while men are raised to face the competition of negotiating the award cake in their favour. A reason why boys are more often encouraged to indulge in competitive games as this teaches them natural simulation strategies to overcome resistance at an early age.
Nevertheless Sophie wasn’t only a dreamer but a tough pragmatist as most women are and continued to provide for herself and her husband, Jean Arp, while he was pursuing his artistic endeavours full time, all based on Sophie’s financial support.
~ ~ ~
Having said this, this pattern of the woman providing for Jean also continued after Sophie’s death as Jean Arp was continued to be financially supported by his second wife, wealthy art collector Marguerite Hagenbach. Marguerite not only ensured that Jean Arp could cast his beautiful sculptures in bronze but she apparently also took care of the demands of his daily existence. Meaning Marguerite was responsible for Jean’s correspondence, the preparations for his exhibitions and made it possible for him to pursue his creative work undisturbed from daily chores.
Coming back to our Sophie, this completes the picture for me that Sophie was the bridge to reality for her husband Jean Arp while he exclusively dedicated his time and her hard earned money to get his art business going. Sounds familiar for some of us, doesn’t it?
I wonder how women get themselves into it or how men talk gifted women into that position. Does the conversation sound something like “.. oh, darling, you work to get the cash, you do those day-to-day jobs so well, while I am rather a free spirit. I’ve got your back though. I’m strategising and promoting myself for both our benefits.” Just funny, it occurs to me, that in the end the rewards of public recognition aren’t shared both ways like the cash that was brought into the joint venture by the women who provided for an existence. I am thinking here shareholder value. Isn’t the investor’s stake nowadays usually regarded at an even higher value than the promoted artist or creator?
It is also rather extraordinary that whenever an article or source talks about Sophie, the respective authors ensure they mention her famous husband when describing Sophie’s achievements. Methinks those authors wanted an editorial safety net, making sure that they are on the secure (meaning scholarly-taught side) of currently accepted art history: Following the common belief that Jean Arp was the guiding light of Sophie’s artistic existence, and not the other way round.
Sophie was advocating a soulful and hyper-progressive perspective on creating playful and genre-spanning art ripe for commercial success.
Sophie died rather untimely in 1943, days before her 54th birthday, in her native Switzerland. It is reported that her death was an accidental one due to carbon monoxide poisoning in the house of Swiss artist and fellow “Allianz” member Max Bill where she had sought refuge from Nazi occupied France.
Jean Arp survived Sophie by 23 years. His longer career as artist played in his favour, good for him.
Even though Sophie’s artistic career got cut unnaturally short, she isn’t a secondary player in European art and performance avant-garde of the 20th century. Sophie was a leading lady in her own right advocating a soulful and hyper-progressive perspective on creating playful and genre-spanning art ripe for commercial success.
If you want to explore Sophie’s legacy, I can recommend watching out for a major retrospective exhibition announced for next year. The show will be travelling from Kunstmuseum Basel to the Tate Modern in London and the MoMA in New York.
When I googled the respective names in October 2020, Sophie Taeuber came up with 350,000 search results. If you googled Jean Arp, it was 10,000,000 search results. Upcoming exhibitions will be moving the needle on her profile.
This is what Sophie taught me: MAKE WAVES. Do not accept what people offer you as a first slice of the pie. Ask for more. They can do better.
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