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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Sophie Taeuber: Textile Reformer

Sophie Taeuber, Farbige Staffelung, 1939.

Hofstettenstrasse 14, 3600 Thun, Switzerland

Although Sophie Taeuber (1889–1943)—more commonly known as Sophie Taeuber-Arp, due to her marriage with Jean Arp—is best known for her paintings of geometric abstractions, she was very much a jack of all trades: sculptor, designer, dancer, choreographer, puppeteer. “I think I have spoken enough to you about serious things,” she once said, “which is why I speak [now] of something to which I attribute great value, still too little appreciated—gaiety.” That ethos underpinned all her work. Taeuber began her career in the early 1900s, studying textile design at the School of Applied Arts, in St. Gallen, a small town that lies in the heart of the Swiss textile industry. This exhibition in Thun features Taeuber’s recently rediscovered textile designs, including her variations on traditional bobbin-lace patterns, which illustrate how she moved toward the geometries of her maturity. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Kunstmuseum Bern, Schenkung Marguerite Arp- Hagenbach