Sophie Taeuber-Arp, A Life through Art
by Silvia Boadella
translated from the German by Tess Lewis
SKIRA, 2021
Nic Aluf, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Portrait with Dada-head, 1920
Gelatin silver print, vintage-print, 13.2 × 9.9 cm
© Private ownership Photocredit: Nic Aluf
Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Composition dans un cercle (éléments d’objets coïncidents), 1936
Gouache on paper, 27.8 × 26 cm
© Private ownership, permanent loan Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau
Photocredit: Peter Schälchli
Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) is considered the most important female Swiss artist of the early 20th century.
A pioneer of modern art, she was at the center of Zurich’s Dada movement. As a modern dancer, painter, sculptor, textile artist, designer and interior architect, she created choreographies and works on paper, textiles, wood and glass: paintings, jewelry, embroidery, rugs, marionettes, furniture and sculptures.
This year, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Tate Modern in London and MoMA in New York celebrates her work and achievements with a major touring retrospective, highlighting the life and career of one of the first women artists of the 20th century.
This book, conceived and written by Silvia Boadella, the great-niece of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, goes beyond the classical genres of a biography, an essay, or even an exhibition catalogue.
Based on family memories, stories, unpublished sources and documents, Sophie Taeuber-Arp: A Life through Art is an intimate portrait of the artist and her inner self. It offers a personal and remarkable account of how Sophie Taeuber-Arp remained passionately dedicated to her art despite the threat of two world wars in a time of tremendous historic and artistic upheavals.
The author grew up surrounded by Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s art. With her intimate and empathetic approach, as if she were looking at the world through the artist’s eyes, Boadella develops a visually and verbally powerful narrative that, for the first time, connects key moments in the artist’s life with her works.
This unique, exceptional portrait is a tribute to how Sophie Taeuber-Arp not only preserved her identity and found joy in extremely difficult circumstances but mustered enormous strength to endure the challenges in her life. It traces her sources of inspiration and love of nature, her childhood, generosity, and relationship with her husband, the famous sculptor Hans (Jean) Arp (1887-1966). It also delves into the couple’s artistic life and circle of friends, including Alexander Calder, Max Ernst and Sonia and Robert Delaunay, and the circumstances of her tragic and accidental death in Zurich en route to exile with Arp to the US in 1943.
Silvia Boadella
Photocredit: Christine Kocher
The author, Silvia Boadella, PhD, great-niece of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, is a writer and psychotherapist. She studied philosophy, literature, psychology and art history in Basel and at the University of Tübingen in Germany, where she received a PhD in philosophy. She was a guest professor for four years at the University of Kanazawa, Japan, where she also trained in Butoh dance with Kazuo Ohno. She then lectured in philosophy at the Goethe Institute in New Delhi, before studying somatic psychotherapy. Since 1985, she and her husband David Boadella have been developing Biosynthesis, a form of somatic psychotherapy, which – following their training courses – is now widely practiced internationally. Silvia Boadella directs the International Institute for Biosynthesis in Switzerland, where she teaches her own combination of art, therapy and dance. She has served as co-editor of Energy & Character, the journal of Biosynthesis, and regularly lectures at international congresses. In 2014, she published a first novel Die tragende Haut (Arbor editions).
Dates of publication: Mid-March 2021 (German-speaking countries), April 2021 (Rest of Europe and UK), June 2021 (USA)
Size 21.5 × 26 cm (8 ½ × 10 ¼ in), bilingual edition (English-German)
224 pages, 80 color and b/w illustrations, paperback
ISBN 978-88-572-4332-0 - Price €32.00, £30.00, $39.95
