Hans/Jean & Sophie Taeuber Arp

Hans (Jean) Arp (1886-1966) and Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) are probably the best-known artist couple in modern art of the 20th century, alongside Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Both were highly gifted and worked in many different genres. Arp was a painter, poet, sculptor and made collages, drawings, reliefs, textiles, woodcuts and much more. TaeuberArp was a textile artist, dancer, designer, editor of an art magazine, painter, sculptor and teacher. They were both pioneers of abstract art, Arp in a biomorphic way, Taeuber-Arp in a more geometric way.As pioneers of abstract art. they created a unique body of work. When they met in Zurich in 1915, shortly before Dada began, it was the beginning of a lifelong, fruitful artistic exchange and collaboration. From drawing to construction, from textile to wall paintings, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans (Jean) Arp gave rhythm to their lives, opening up geometric and organic abstraction to dance. decor, architecture, sculpture and the applied arts. Like other artist couples. they developed not only an emotional but also an artistic intimacy, as they closely followed the creation of their partner's work and discussed their aspirations almost daily. Each partner implicitly regarded the other as both disciple and guide, even when the two were working on the same project. They interacted alternately as producers and critics. performers and spectators, and considered their joint efforts not so much in the light of individual works or even a series of works in progress, but in terms of an ideal community in which other artists would eventually participate.From 1926 to 1928, they worked together on several interior design projects in Strasbourg, which allowed them to move trom Zurich to Clamart on the outskirts ot Paris in an atelier-house designed by Sophie Taeuber-Arp.The French years - from spring 1929 to autumn 1942, when they left France tor a temporary stay in Switzerland, where Taeuber-Arp accidentally died in 1943 in Zurich - were their most successful years as artists and as a couple.