»Compositions«

Sophie Taeuber-Arp

  • © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Foto: Mick Vincenz
    1 / 2
    Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition à cercles, carrés et rectangles / Composition with Circles, Squares and Rectangles, 1933
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, photo: Mick Vincenz
  • © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Foto: Mick Vincenz
    2 / 2
    Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition à cercles et rectangles / Composition with Circles and Rectangles, 1933
    © Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, photo: Mick Vincenz

About the Works

Composition with Circles, Squares and Rectangles
Gouache on paper, 35,3 x 47 cm

Composition with Circles and Rectangles
Gouache on paper, 38 x 54 cm

In the 1930s Sophie Taeuber-Arp abandoned the rudimentary contentual references of the 1920s. At first sight the compositions she now produced were subject to strict organising principles. The arrangement is limited entirely to the use of circles, segments of circles, rectangles or squares. She makes only sparing use of clear colours in the mostly black and white grid patterns; they set accents and direct the viewer's gaze. But how rigorous, how static are these compositions really? Or are they not considerably more dynamic than we first thought? Because through the varying distances between the circular forms and their relationship to the rectangles, occasionally the circles break out of the logically constructed pictorial structure.

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