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The Arts Intel Report

Sophie Taeuber-Arp

July 15 – Oct 17, 2021
Bankside, London SE1 9TG, UK

“I think I have spoken enough to you about serious things,” Sophie Taeuber-Arp, a pioneer of Dadaism and the first wife of Jean Arp, once said, “which is why I speak [now] of something to which I attribute great value, still too little appreciated—gaiety.” This comment comes as no surprise, considering that Taeuber-Arp had been a dancer, choreographer, and puppeteer. Constructivist, Dada, concrete, abstract—all these words apply to her diverse practice in one way or another, yet Taeuber-Arp had none of the cynicism or anger that characterized fellow radicals. Her blocks and blobs of color are lyrical, joyful—a visual expression of the energy coursing within. This is Taeuber-Arp’s first-ever U.K. retrospective. —E.C.

Sophie Taeuber–Arp, “Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles,” 1930. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Riklis Collection of McCrory Corporation. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Imaging and Visual Resources © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ VG Bild–Kunst, Bonn.