Sophie Taeuber-Arp
n.T. (Grasse), 1942
Crayon drawing, 26,5 x 34,5 cm
Route Napoleon, 1940
Crayon drawing, 26,5 x 34,7 cm
Between 1939 and 1942 the freehand line became the defining means of expression during an intensive phase in Sophie Taeuber-Arp's oeuvre. The contours, which had hitherto been closed and with which she sketched shells or leaves, opened up and took on a life of their own to form rhythmically dynamic looping forms. Instead of a graphite pencil the artist mostly used coloured crayons. The lines hover in front of the unusually free background, meeting in ever-new variations: sometimes orderly and sometimes apparently chaotic or combined with straight, angular elements. Frequently Taeuber-Arp defines coloured areas in the spaces in between, which form a tension-filled counterpoint to the otherwise flowing movements. She named these line pictures after the places in the South of France where they were produced: Nérac, Veyrier and finally Grasse. Nothing in these colourful, weightless rhythms seems to point towards the threatening period in exile, overshadowed by war, during which they were created.