Painter

Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp was a Swiss Dada artist whose geometric abstractions moved between gouache, oil painting, textiles, and painted sculpture.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp quick facts

Taeuber-Arp developed rhythmic geometric forms across paper, canvas, textiles, and painted objects, challenging the divide between fine and applied art.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp quick facts
Full name	Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber
Born	1889 · Davos, Switzerland
Died	1943 · Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Movements	Dada
Paint types	Watercolor · Gouache paint · Metallic paint · Oil paint
Other media	Sculpture
Other materials	—
Painting surfaces	Paper · Canvas · Wood
Painting methods	Paints sharply bounded circles and rectangles in opaque, flat colors, repeating geometric shapes within restricted palettes
Common subjects	Nonrepresentational circles, rectangles, color rhythms, marionettes, and abstract painted heads
Notable works	Vertical, Horizontal, Square, Rectangular · Composition with Rectangles and Circles · Circle Picture · Head (1920, oil-painted wood sculpture with beads and wire)

Sources: MoMA: Vertical, Horizontal, Square, Rectangular, gouache on paper, MoMA: Échelonnement désaxé, gouache on paper, MoMA: Living Abstraction exhibition checklist, oil on canvas, MoMA: Head, oil on wood.

Paint types used by Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp used Gouache paint, Watercolor, Metallic paint; examples below link these media to named works and explain their role in image-making.

Gouache paint

Vertical, Horizontal, Square, Rectangular (1917) combines gouache with metallic paint and pencil on paper. Taeuber-Arp’s colored geometry turns a small sheet into a carefully balanced abstract composition, documenting opaque paint alongside reflective material and drawing. The record distinguishes opaque gouache from transparent watercolor.
Watercolor

Taeuber-Arp used watercolor in early botanical studies, sometimes combining it with gouache and pencil on drawing paper. The research record for Untitled (Nasturtium Blossoms) (1910) documents this mixed technique, showing a separate observational practice before her abstract compositions. The catalog identifies watercolor separately from drawing materials.
Metallic paint

MoMA records metallic paint in the 1917 paper work and metallic flakes alongside oil in Composition (1930). These are documented metallic materials, not metal leaf; the reflective accents appear in both sheet-based geometry and a later canvas painting. The catalog documents metallic paint as a paint medium in this work.
Oil paint

Taeuber-Arp’s Composition (1930) is recorded as oil with metallic flakes on canvas. Head (1920) is oil on wood, but it is a painted object rather than a flat panel painting. Together these works document oil across distinct support forms. The object record names oil as the work’s paint medium.

Sources: MoMA: Vertical, Horizontal, Square, Rectangular (1917), gouache and metallic paint on paper; MoMA: Composition (1930), oil and metallic flakes on canvas; MoMA: Head (1920), oil on wood; Sophie Taeuber-Arp Research Project: watercolor and gouache on paper.

Painting surfaces used by Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp's documented works use paper and canvas; examples clarify whether each is the painted ground, support, or part of the object.

Paper

Taeuber-Arp’s gouaches, including Vertical, Horizontal, Square, Rectangular (1917), are documented on paper. The sheet carries gouache, metallic paint, and pencil in a carefully balanced geometric design, distinct from her oil paintings and constructed objects. The collection record names the sheet as the work’s documented support.
Canvas

Her oil paintings include works on canvas, recorded in the Living Abstraction checklist. MoMA’s Composition (1930), oil with metallic flakes on canvas, documents her use of fabric for abstract geometric forms. The collection entry identifies canvas as the work’s immediate support.
Wood

Taeuber-Arp also painted on wood panels and objects, including Head (1920), recorded as oil on wood. The material supports a three-dimensional painted object rather than a conventional flat painting, extending her work across applied art and painting. The record identifies the panel as part of the painted construction.

Painters similar to Sophie Taeuber-Arp

Picabia and Höch also challenged Dada conventions, while Taeuber-Arp brought geometric painting into textiles, design, and painted sculpture.

Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia was a French avant-garde painter associated with Dada, shifting among machine imagery, abstraction, and playful visual provocation.

Hannah Höch

Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist who pioneered critical photomontage and combined printed imagery with watercolor, gouache, and painted abstraction.