Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Amphora, 1917
painted wood

Sophie Taeuber-Arp trained in many different artisanal techniques. Between 1910 and 1914, she intermittently attended Wilhelm von Debschitz’s progressive school of fine and applied arts in Munich. In 1917 she produced a variety of lathe-turned wooden containers, four of which have survived. Despite their sculptural appearance, these two-part vessels, which vary widely in shape, were quite ordinary in function. One was used by her sister as a powder jar. What the potbellied Amphora might have been used for is the subject of ongoing research. It was long regarded as a duo piece by Arp and Taeuber-Arp, but a notation on the back of an old photograph leaves no doubt that the female artist was its sole creator.