Sophie Taeuber-Arp, an early champion and practitioner of abstract art, was born 127 years ago on January 19 in Davos, Switzerland
So who was Sophie Taeuber-Arp?
Born in Davos, Switzerland in 1889 as Sophie Henriette Gertrude Taeuber, Taeuber-Arp is now recognised as one of the key figures in the Dada artistic movement, though in her lifetime she fought for her less figurative style of art to be recognised as fine art.
Taeuber-Arp studied drawing and attended the School for Applied and Free Art in Munich before leaving for Zurich in 1915, where she met and later married French sculptor, painter and collagist Hans Arp in 1922.
The pair famously created vast, abstract multimedia works under the umbrella Duo Collages.
Arp was a friend of the celebrated Surrealist Max Ernst, and is considered a founder member of the anarchic Dada movement, which celebrated the avant-garde, conceptual approach to creating art, often resulting in unorthodox materials appearing in abstract, unusual compositions.
The Swiss artist experimented with numerous styles, from regimented grid work to free-flowing geometric shapes and abstracted human-like figures, and also created some of the early foundation pieces of the Constructivism movement.
She taught weaving at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts before moving to Strasbourg, and later Paris.
In Strasbourg she, Arp and Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg were commissioned to refurbish the interior of a large mid-18th century building into what would become Café Aubette, complete with cinema and dancehalls.
Taeuber-Arp adorns the Swiss 50 franc note
Unfortunately, the modern design was deeply unpopular with the residents of Strasbourg, and many changes were made after its completion before it was eventually bombed by the Nazis.
The pair later fled Paris to escape the Nazi invasion during the Second World War, and settled back in Zurich.
As well as a skilled artist, Taeuber-Arp was also a lauded dancer, and performed at the Cabaret Voltaire nightclub which was a firm favourite with the Dada crowd.
She also created the avant-garde stage set and puppets for a reimagining of Carlo Gozzi's "König Hirsch" ("Il ré cervo").
She died in Zurich in 1943 of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning (a faulty stove), and remains the only woman to date to feature on Swiss banknotes.
While she is not as well-recognised as Georgia O'Keefe or Dorothea Tanning, her innovative eye and skill place her among one of the 20th century's most prominent female artists.
The Dadaist movement was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century
The movement sprung up in Zurich, Switzerland during and immediately after World War I, largely in reaction to the 10 million dead killed during the conflict
In 1916 the Dadaists began to put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire club in Zurich, expressing their disgust with the war
The artists blamed rational society for bringing European civilisation to the brink of destruction so they created art that was anything but rational: it was absurd and playful and it often meant nothing
The name also meant nothing. In 1916, the poet Tristan Tzara apparently stuck a penknife into a dictionary at random and landed on the French name for 'hobbyhorse'
Key figures in the movement included Hans Arp and wife Sophie Tubaer-Arp, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Richard Huelsenbeck, George Grosz, John Heartfield and Marcel Duchamp - whose 1917 work Fountain (above) is perhaps the best known work of the movement
Born in Davos, Switzerland in 1889 as Sophie Henriette Gertrude Taeuber, Taeuber-Arp is now recognised as one of the key figures in the Dada artistic movement, though in her lifetime she fought for her less figurative style of art to be recognised as fine art.
Taeuber-Arp studied drawing and attended the School for Applied and Free Art in Munich before leaving for Zurich in 1915, where she met and later married French sculptor, painter and collagist Hans Arp in 1922.
The pair famously created vast, abstract multimedia works under the umbrella Duo Collages.
Arp was a friend of the celebrated Surrealist Max Ernst, and is considered a founder member of the anarchic Dada movement, which celebrated the avant-garde, conceptual approach to creating art, often resulting in unorthodox materials appearing in abstract, unusual compositions.
The Swiss artist experimented with numerous styles, from regimented grid work to free-flowing geometric shapes and abstracted human-like figures, and also created some of the early foundation pieces of the Constructivism movement.
She taught weaving at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts before moving to Strasbourg, and later Paris.
In Strasbourg she, Arp and Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg were commissioned to refurbish the interior of a large mid-18th century building into what would become Café Aubette, complete with cinema and dancehalls.
Taeuber-Arp adorns the Swiss 50 franc note
Unfortunately, the modern design was deeply unpopular with the residents of Strasbourg, and many changes were made after its completion before it was eventually bombed by the Nazis.
The pair later fled Paris to escape the Nazi invasion during the Second World War, and settled back in Zurich.
As well as a skilled artist, Taeuber-Arp was also a lauded dancer, and performed at the Cabaret Voltaire nightclub which was a firm favourite with the Dada crowd.
She also created the avant-garde stage set and puppets for a reimagining of Carlo Gozzi's "König Hirsch" ("Il ré cervo").
She died in Zurich in 1943 of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning (a faulty stove), and remains the only woman to date to feature on Swiss banknotes.
While she is not as well-recognised as Georgia O'Keefe or Dorothea Tanning, her innovative eye and skill place her among one of the 20th century's most prominent female artists.
The Dadaist movement was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century
The movement sprung up in Zurich, Switzerland during and immediately after World War I, largely in reaction to the 10 million dead killed during the conflict
In 1916 the Dadaists began to put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire club in Zurich, expressing their disgust with the war
The artists blamed rational society for bringing European civilisation to the brink of destruction so they created art that was anything but rational: it was absurd and playful and it often meant nothing
The name also meant nothing. In 1916, the poet Tristan Tzara apparently stuck a penknife into a dictionary at random and landed on the French name for 'hobbyhorse'
Key figures in the movement included Hans Arp and wife Sophie Tubaer-Arp, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Richard Huelsenbeck, George Grosz, John Heartfield and Marcel Duchamp - whose 1917 work Fountain (above) is perhaps the best known work of the movement
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