Reimagining the work Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber was born in January 1889 in Davos, Switzerland. Her parents ran a pharmacy and a linen goods shop. TaeuberArp's mother taught embroidery and designed herself. She encouraged her two daughters to make their own costumes, something TaeuberArp continued to do throughout her life, for college balls and dance performances. The family lived in a region of Switzerland renowned for its textiles, embroidery and lace making. Taeuber-Arp studied at several institutions that trained students to work as designers in industry. She trained in woodwork, drawing, textiles and design.
This makes sense when you see the variety in her output. Yet textiles continued to pull at her. In 1911, Taeuber-Arp wrote: 'I’m finding that I have a real liking for textiles, designing rugs, upholstery fabrics and, right now, some very large-patterned curtain fabric'. With the outbreak of war in 1914, she returned to Switzerland. She met dada artist Hans Arp (also known as Jean Arp) at a Modern Tapestries, Embroideries, Paintings, and Drawings exhibition at Galerie Tanner in Zurich. They married in 1922 and by 1929 moved to Paris, where they immersed themselves in the art world. Whilst there, Taeuber-Arp would undertake architectural interiors and co-found and edit the progressive multilingual artist's magazine Plastique.
Both her fine art and applied work are characterised by abstract patterns and geometric grids. Her designs for an embroidery might have ended up as a design for a rug. And her preparatory drawings for embroideries were also shown as works of art in their own right. Paper collages were morphed into tapestry and rug designs. In her 1922 published text Remarks on the Instruction of Ornamental Design, written whilst Taeuber-Arp was teaching textile design in at the Trade School in Zürich, she encouraged a new generation of textile practitioners to ‘try to comprehend the nature of the material’ whilst also giving instructions for developing patterns and colour exercises. Taeuber-Arp balanced her teaching with her making. She made textiles herself and also designed textiles for industry. She worked across techniques and materials, from tapestry and embroidery to woven rugs, from batik and beadwork to lace; all of which are represented in this exhibition. A true trailblazer, TaeuberArp was often the only women exhibiting in major exhibitions of the time and from her early career onwards, her work was purchased enthusiastically by the public and museums.
As part of last week's London Design Festival contemporary rug maker Christopher Farr launched their collaboration with Fondation Arp to present two new rugs, the hand knotted ‘Etude Ligne, 1941’, and CF Editions hand tufted ‘Aubette Study’. Made in collaboration with the Fondation Arp, the designs are adapted from original artworks of the trailblazing multidisciplinary Swiss artist and designer Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Text by Jane Audas
This makes sense when you see the variety in her output. Yet textiles continued to pull at her. In 1911, Taeuber-Arp wrote: 'I’m finding that I have a real liking for textiles, designing rugs, upholstery fabrics and, right now, some very large-patterned curtain fabric'. With the outbreak of war in 1914, she returned to Switzerland. She met dada artist Hans Arp (also known as Jean Arp) at a Modern Tapestries, Embroideries, Paintings, and Drawings exhibition at Galerie Tanner in Zurich. They married in 1922 and by 1929 moved to Paris, where they immersed themselves in the art world. Whilst there, Taeuber-Arp would undertake architectural interiors and co-found and edit the progressive multilingual artist's magazine Plastique.
Both her fine art and applied work are characterised by abstract patterns and geometric grids. Her designs for an embroidery might have ended up as a design for a rug. And her preparatory drawings for embroideries were also shown as works of art in their own right. Paper collages were morphed into tapestry and rug designs. In her 1922 published text Remarks on the Instruction of Ornamental Design, written whilst Taeuber-Arp was teaching textile design in at the Trade School in Zürich, she encouraged a new generation of textile practitioners to ‘try to comprehend the nature of the material’ whilst also giving instructions for developing patterns and colour exercises. Taeuber-Arp balanced her teaching with her making. She made textiles herself and also designed textiles for industry. She worked across techniques and materials, from tapestry and embroidery to woven rugs, from batik and beadwork to lace; all of which are represented in this exhibition. A true trailblazer, TaeuberArp was often the only women exhibiting in major exhibitions of the time and from her early career onwards, her work was purchased enthusiastically by the public and museums.
As part of last week's London Design Festival contemporary rug maker Christopher Farr launched their collaboration with Fondation Arp to present two new rugs, the hand knotted ‘Etude Ligne, 1941’, and CF Editions hand tufted ‘Aubette Study’. Made in collaboration with the Fondation Arp, the designs are adapted from original artworks of the trailblazing multidisciplinary Swiss artist and designer Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Text by Jane Audas