Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Seashells, 1938

oil on wood

In the 1930s, the line became a key design element in Taeuber-Arp’s work. As a clear, straight stroke, it divided pictures into “above” and “below”; as a diagonal, it continued on beyond the picture’s edges to infinity. In this relief, curved lines form the contours of stylized seashells or leaves. After 1939, Taeuber-Arp opened up her hitherto closed outlines, giving them an independent existence as rhythmically moving ribbonlike forms.