Image: Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
‘Sophie Taeuber-Arp: A Legacy in Print’ is a library display at the Sculpture Research Library, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, running from 28 July to 3 October 2026. The display traces Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s legacy through rare books and exhibition catalogues. It accompanies ‘Arp: The Plasters’ at Leeds Art Gallery.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943) was a multifaceted artist whose work encompassed painting, sculpture, works on paper, textiles, dance, costume and set design, interior design and architecture. Challenging the separation of fine art and craft, she sought to connect art with everyday life.
As an interior designer, Taeuber-Arp was invited to redesign the Aubette building in Strasbourg as an entertainment complex. Her Dada Heads, made between 1918 and 1920, were illustrated in Zurich Dada’s periodicals, and she realised five issues of the international art magazine ‘Plastique’. She was involved in many of the defining artistic movements of the twentieth century, from Zurich Dada to the international artists’ groups Cercle et Carré and Abstraction-Création.
Much of the material on display was published posthumously, following her untimely death in 1943 from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, and speaks to the friendships and networks she cultivated during her lifetime. This material includes the 1943 publication ‘Les derniers 9 dessins de Sophie Taeuber-Arp’, designed by her former student Max Bill. The publication reproduced nine of Taeuber-Arp’s so-called ‘geometric constructions’, made in Zurich in December 1942.
