Sophie Taeuber-Arp: A Legacy in Print

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) was a multifaceted artist whose work encompassed painting, sculpture, works on paper, textiles, dance, costume and set design, interior design and architecture.

Challenging the separation of fine art and craft, she sought to connect art with everyday life. She was involved in many of the defining artistic movements of the twentieth century, from Zurich Dada to the international artists’ groups Cercle et Carré and Abstraction-Création.

As a sculptor her Dada Heads 1918-20 were illustrated in Zurich Dada’s periodicals; as an interior designer she was invited to redesign the Aubette building in Strasbourg as an entertainment complex; and as an editor she realised five issues of the international art magazine Plastique (Plastic).

This display traces Taeuber-Arp’s legacy through rare books and exhibition catalogues. Much of the material on display was published posthumously, following her untimely death in 1943 from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, and speaks to the friendships and networks she cultivated during her lifetime.

Her husband, the artist Jean (Hans) Arp, expressed his grief through poetry – including a series of French poems written in her memory – and through the promotion and dissemination of her work. This included the 1943 publication Les derniers 9 dessins de Sophie Taeuber-Arp (The Last 9 Drawings by Sophie Taeuber-Arp), designed by her former student Max Bill, which reproduced nine of her so-called ‘geometric constructions’ made in Zurich in December 1942. Arp also began working on a commemorative publication, asking friends to contribute their memories of her, which would ultimately become a catalogue raisonné, published in 1948.

In recent years there has been renewed interest in Taeuber-Arp, with major exhibitions held around the world, including the first retrospective of her work in the UK at Tate Modern in 2021. Despite this, there are currently few examples of her work in UK public collections and as such her art remains primarily mediated through the medium of print – or the digital. Just as readers in the 1920s or 30s might have first encountered her work in Dada periodicals or in issues of Abstraction-Création, we too continue to experience her distinctive lexicon of abstraction on page or screen.

This display is programmed alongside the exhibition Arp: The Plasters at Leeds Art Gallery which runs until 4 October 2026 and includes further material from the Henry Moore Institute Sculpture Research Library’s collection.