By Roswitha Mair
Translated by Damion Searls

"Roswitha Mair’s biography of Sophie Taeuber, first published in German in 2013, delves into a range of unpublished sources, not only those held at the Fondation Arp in Paris, but also those still in the keeping of the Taeuber family, among them her elder sister’s letters and diaries. This trove—it even includes the original plan for the Trogen house – is especially helpful in building a picture of Sophie’s early life." ―London Review of Books

“A biography of Sophie Taeuber is, without question, a necessary project, and Mair answers this need with an engaging and finely crafted book. It will be valuable, not only for historians’ reevaluation of Taeuber’s career but also for a general appreciation of the complexities and contradictions of the fascinating years in which she lived and worked.” ―Megan R. Luke, University of Southern California

"The writing, in a highly readable translation by Damion Searls, is lucid and direct. The entire story, presented in just under two hundred pages, has an easy, agile pace." ―New York Review of Books

Sophie Taeuber-Arp was a quiet innovator whose fame has too often been yoked to that of her husband, Jean Arp. Over time, however, she has slowly come to be seen as one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the twentieth century. The Swiss-born Taeuber-Arp had a front row seat to the first wave of Dadaism and, along with Mondrian and Malevich, was a pioneer of Constructivism. Her singular artwork incorporated painting, sculpture, dance, fiber arts, and architecture, as hers was one of the first oeuvres to successfully bridge the divide between fine and functional art.
 
Now Roswitha Mair has brought us the first biography of this unique polymath, illuminating not just Tauber-Arp’s own life and work, but also the various milieux and movements in which she traveled.  

Hardback
222 pages
University of Chicago Press, 2018
6 x 1 x 9 inches
ISBN 9780226311210
Artist Monographs, Biography, Design, Dada, Women Artists