Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber made magnificent stage sets, costumes, puppets, gouache paintings, oil paintings, weavings, and embroideries on cotton.

She:
- was one of very few Swiss participants in Zurich Dada activities

- was educated at the School of Applied Arts of Saint Gall, the textile workshop of the experimental studio (directed by Wilhelm von Debschitz), and the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg. Studied with Swiss modern dancer and choreographer Rudolf von Laban and performed with Mary Wigman at the Cabaret Voltaire dressed in costumes designed by fellow members of the Dada circle

- met Hans Arp in the fall of 1915 and later married him. Hans and Sophie worked extensively with abstract geometric forms and produced multiple collaborative collages, paintings, and textiles

- was professor of textile design and techniques at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich

- designed the stage sets and marionettes for a 1918 production of Carlo Gozzi's play Il re cervo (König Hirsch/King Stag), adapted by Werner Wolff and René Morax. This was the first performance of its kind to integrate Dada and psychoanalysis

- settled in Strasbourg

- received a commission to decorate The Aubette entertainment complex in the center of Strasbourg (and worked on the project with her husband and Theo van Doesburg)

- lived in Paris with Arp from 1928 - 1940.

- and Arp were forced to leave Paris for Southern France when World War II broke

- died of accidental gas poisoning in 1943 while she and Arp were in Zurich attempting to obtain passage to the United States.

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